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There comes a time in everyone’s fridge when good food goes bad. No matter how devoted one might be to planning out their meals, or how much food one eats in a given week, everyone is guilty of having let fresh herbs wilt in the crisper drawer, or strawberries mold in their container hidden behind the milk.
No one is to blame really, we’re all racing against the clock that is our produce’s short life span. Luckily, there are solutions. Smart products are being made to help folks preserve their groceries (and the money they spent on them). We rounded up nine that can be helpful in ending food waste in home fridges everywhere.
This 2-ply cheese paper allows cheese to breath while maintaining humidity to prevent cheese from drying out. It essentially recreates the environment where cheeses are stored to age.
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10 Little Kitchen Luxuries Under $15
As almost every luxury car commercial will tell you, indulgence requires money. Leather, chrome, a blonde wearing diamonds, a handsome driver, an open road in the middle of the night. It's a fast, glam life, people. Only slick suits with deep pockets need apply.
Well, thank goodness The Kitchn isn't about cars, because otherwise we wouldn't be able to tell you about the little luxurious kitchen gifts that — gasp! — won't put you out more than $15. No gold-plated appliances or crystal bowls here. Here are 10 small gifts that feel special.
Formaticum Cheese Paper, $8 from Amazon: Good cheese itself is one of life's little luxuries, so it's a shame to let it dry out wrapped in plastic. (Don't do that.) This specially made cheese paper lets cheese breathe. We love the illustrated goat/cow/sheep label indicators, too.
Cheese Paper: How It Saves Your Cheese
The cheeserati tell us to never wrap the pricey artisan Kentucky Rose or Humboldt Fog we've just bought in plastic wrap. But what's a cheese lover to do when the wedges come home in that plastic?
Some shops send their cheeses home wrapped in paper created just for the job. But is it really necessary? And what does it do?
Yes, says Mark Goldman, founder of Brooklyn-based Formaticum, maker of a specialty cheese paper, and it does more than keep cheese from drying out.
"Cheese is a pretty hearty food product when it's in its whole wheel," says Goldman. "Once that rind is broken, the cheese starts to absorb other types of flavors. Or molds that had a happy balance on the rind of cheese, it's new surface for them to colonize. Secondary growth on the (newly exposed) surface can change the flavor of the cheese."
Other problems that can occur in a badly stored cheese: When a cheese dries out, salt collects on the surface and crystallizes; the butter fat can separate out; and water can condense on the surface.
The paper most retailers use to wrap cheese is a butcher or freezer paper, says Goldman. The problem: Those papers "are not designed to regulate humidity or allow oxygen exchange, which are both critical for storing cheese properly," he says.
Formaticum paper, and others like it, are built to do the job. The paper features wax-coated paper on the outside, which allows an exchange of oxygen but prevents moisture from escaping, and a thin sheet of porous plastic on the inside, which wicks away any condensation that might build up on the cheese surface. That moisture is trapped between the layers, says Goldman.
"It's kind of like Gortex," says Goldman. "The two layers are working in concert to keep the cheese humidity in — to preserve the level of the humidity that is there. The inner layer wicks away any condensation which can cause surface mold growth."
Specialty cheese shops, such as Pastoral Artisan Cheese, Bread and Wine in Chicago, tend to use specialty cheese papers. Pastoral doesn't sell packages of specialty wrap because it already packages customers' freshly cut wedges in cheese paper for the trip home, according to senior buyer Lydia Burns, and that paper can be used for storage. The shop will sell extra sheets, though, if you want them.
If your cheesemonger doesn't wrap your purchases in specialty paper, though, you can buy your own. Look for Formaticum papers and bags at Eataly, 43 E. Ohio St., $8.80 for a box of 15 sheets or bags, and some Sur La Table and Crate & Barrel stores. Or for $9 at formaticum.com.
A Cheesemonger Champ Shares How To Keep Cheese Fresh
Cheesemongering is a relatively new profession in the United States but a time-honored one in Europe.Steve Jones is the 2011 Cheesemonger Invitational champion. He has worked in cheese for some 15 years and owns the Cheese Bar in Portland, Ore.
LRK: Should your cheese be wrapped? Should it be plastic-wrapped?
SJ: We highly recommend that every piece of cheese that leaves my shop leaves in perforated cheese paper. There’s one out there that consumers can buy from a brand called Formaticum. It’s a French-made paper that’s dynamite. It works really well; it’ll add a ton of life to your cheese. It allows the cheese to continue to breathe without it suffocating and without all that moisture being stuck inside. It will about double the life of your cheese.
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