Repackaging and storing cheeses at home

[phaelon56]

Hello and welcome to eGullet! As a solo consumer I often find it difficult to use up cheese quickly enough before the quality deteriorates. There has been discussion here at eGullet about using home vacuum sealing equipment, such as the Tilia machine, to repackage cheese at home into smaller portions.

What is your opinion of this technique and can you suggest other tips for home storage that may help preserve the integrity of cheeses for longer?

[master cheesemonger/grocer]

First, don't buy so much cheese at one time that storage is an issue; I understand that if you live a long way from your source that you may stock up from time to time, and that, I will address. But if your source for cheese is nearby, just buy enough that you wipe it all out in no more than TWO SITTINGS, and within a couple of weeks. Cheese gets stale. It doesn't "go bad" like milk, it just gets stale (or overripe, in the case of soft-ripened cheeses like Brie and with washed-rind cheeses like Pont l'Eveque) which still doesn't mean the cheese has "gone bad"; it's just too ripe for you, you sissy). It will get less stale, and will take longer to become overripe if you wrap them gently in wax paper or aluminum foil. I prefer both to plastic wrap, as plastic wrap suffocates cheese which alters it worse than if you left your leftovers unwrapped and out on the counter for however long you choose to keep it. The notion of acquiring a machine that shrink wraps your cheese is OK, I guess, but you'll never find one in my house, but then I'm a Luddite and I hate that sort of machine nonsense (even though shrink-wrapping is a constant in my daily business life). I take good care of my leftover cheeses at home. I frequently serve a soft cheese I brought home a couple of weeks ago, or a hard cheese I brought home a month ago. I have kept them isolated in a hamper toward the bottom of the refrigerator. I further isolate blues from non-blues. But I am ruthless as to whether a leftover is stale or not. Don't kid yourself. If you have relented and deemed a shard or two or three unworthy, trim their rinds away, shred them and mash them into a crock with some white wine or brandy if they're sheeps or goats; some beer or some whiskey if they're cows. Cover, refrigerate, serve as a spread til the cows come home.

[ahr]

It will get less stale, and will take longer to become overripe if you wrap them gently in wax paper or aluminum foil.  I prefer both to plastic wrap, as plastic wrap suffocates cheese which alters it worse than if you left your leftovers unwrapped and out on the counter for however long you choose to keep it.

Does this mean that aluminum foil and wax paper are more porous than plastic wrap, or is some other factor in play here?