storing fresh cheese?

Zhukov:
One I hope hasn't been covered:

We bought a wedge of Parmigiano-Reggiano a while ago. I read that exposure to air is bad, but that if you could the cheese out of the air, you could store it for quite a while. Is it safe to store this cheese vacuum-packed in the fridge, and for how long?

[ETA] Found my answer on the Foodsaver website. It says that vacuum sealed cheese lasts 4-8 months in the fridge as compared to 1-2 weeks.

Follow-up: How do you tell hard cheese is going bad?


Excellent question, with the exception of fresh cheese, Ricotta, cottage cheese, mozzarella, mascarpone, crème fraiche, and other soft, "farmers" cheeses, should be treated similar to that of milk or cream depending on the fat content of the cheese. The higher the fat content in the fresh cheese the longer it will last. The high moisture to salt ratio in these cheeses allows for an environment that encourages spoilage. One way to combat this is to add active cultures to the mix, such as those contained in yogurt and sour cream. These retard the formation of spores that cause the eventual deterioration of every thing..they can also alter these fresh cheeses by draining their moisture or salting them. Provolone is actually made the same way as Mozzarella but with a dryer, saltier environment Provolone can age indefinitely. (At least as far as food safety is concerned.)

Cheese making techniques have been around and perfected for a few thousand years, and have come a long way by the time of the Romans.
Accounts of cheeses with a suspicious resemblance to Parmaggiano were being described in the areas to the north of previous Etruscan territories and it had been produced for more centuries than we can count,
Hard durable cheeses such as Parmaggiano or Pecorino of today – were a means of nourishment a soldier could travel with for months in the hot Mediterranean climate. Soldiers were freed from the worry of foraging for fresh food.
basiclly, Cheese was he original version of C-rats and today's MRE's

Natural cheese is alive. Suffocation and dampness is the enemy. Plastic wrap, plastic bags, and other airtight containers should be avoided in all cases except the fresh cheeses. These storage methods trap in stale air, as well as prohibiting the cheese from venting moisture and other byproducts. Once a soggy oxygen deprived environment develops, anaerobic bacteria present themselves. This is a bad thing. This is spoilage. Butcher paper, parchment paper, and wax paper avoid this problem. The cheese is allowed to dry out as it would do anyway if were intentionally aged in a full wheel; it just dries faster in a cut wedge. Mold will still grow on the cheese. Generally these molds are the same ones found naturally on the cheese’s rind. Just cut off the moldy part, and you’re good to go. Eventually the cheese will get stale, but not much worse. In general, long before the cheese is ever dangerous to ones health, it will taste awful.

As for refrigeration: As previously stated, the invention of refrigeration followed the advent of cheese making by thousands of years and probably predates written history so dry natural cheese is bred to allow cool and room temperature storage. IF you have been to Italy, Spain, Greece, you will find fresh hard cheeses sitting on the counter wrapped in cheese cloth, the cloth the only thing protecting it from the elements and it has been this way, well, forever..
Refrigeration merely slows down the life cycle of the cheese. For a piece of Gouda this means 3 months outside refrigeration vs. 6 (or even more) months inside. For Taleggio, this could mean 12 days as apposed to 3 or 4 weeks .
In the case of vacuum sealed cheeses, we are dealing with what accounts to suspended animation. The vacuum created generally halts any biological activity that would otherwise occur. Once the seal is broken the cheese should always be stored in a breathable environment

So, to generally answer your question, Dried cheese rarely goes bad, it dries out, it loses flavor, it grows additional molds similar to the molds that created the cheese to begin with,,
as long as your hard cheese's are wrapped in breathable wrapping to avoid contamination and are not allowed to sit in dampness they will last quite a long time, months, even a year or more easily.
Sealing, Water entrapment, the sweat or tears that weep from quality cheeses, not allowed to dry are the enemy of dry cheese not particularly age and lastly
if it Tastes like your feet and it wasn't supposed to to begin with IT IS probably BAD

Thank you, you always bring me challenging questions,,appreciate it..

CHEF