Here’s the problem: If you love cheese as much as I do, you always buy too much. Then you watch it wither away in your refrigerator, dying a slow and horrible death. In order to protect it, you need to wrap it away from all the aggressive odors that inhabit your refrigerator, waiting ot pounce. But plastic or foil simply suffocate your cheese. Waxed paper is less lethal – it allows it to breathe – but offers little in the way of protection. If you want to make your cheese happy,cheese papersare the answer.
Somebody actually gave me a package of cheese papers a couple of years ago, and it changed my life; I’ve been grateful ever since. I’m pretty sure your friends will feel the same.
Cheese is one of those delicate foods that endures endless abuse. We swaddle it in fumey plastic, stuff it in the back of the refrigerator and wonder why it doesn’t taste as good as it did when we sampled it at the cheese shop. What most of us forget is that, like wine and other fermented products, unprocessed cheese is a live food. Once a wheel is cut into chunks or slices, the cheese is much more vulnerable to rapid deterioration. Proper handling and storage is essential to maintaining peak flavor. This two-ply cheese paper from Formaticum is just like the stuff they use to swaddle cheese in France. It’s made to mimic cage-aging conditions, with a layer of wax paper lined with a porous plastic that lets cheese “breathe” without being overexposed to air. You’ll be shocked at how much longer your favorite cheeses stay fresh. A package of 15 sheets and labels is about $9 at your local gourmet shop. You can also order by mail from www.formaticum.com.
While most casual fromage fans might not even know that a proper way to store cheese exists, acheese-centric startupin Portland, Oregon developed a product specifically designed to help preserve and protect their favored food.
Formaticum makes theirCheese Paperwith an outer layer of wax paper that allows the cheese to breathe. An inner plastic membrane guards against excess moisture, but is porous enough to allow oxygen exchange, creating a cave-like environment for prolonging the cheese's shelf life. The difference, as the brand puts it, is "between eating vibrant and delicious cheese or dead and rotten cheese."
A concept nicely in synch with the internationalSlow Food movement, Formaticum prints the wraps with a map of small-batch farmers in the U.S., hoping to raise awareness about the many delicious cheeses produced domestically.
You can extend the life of your cheese by wrapping it in two-ply cheese paper from Formaticum, based in Portland, Ore. Printed on one side with maps showing US artisan cheese makers, the paper has a porous plastic inner layer and a wax-coated outer layer that preserves flavor by maintaining proper humidity and allowing cheese to breathe. Traditional food wraps...