LESSON 5: CHEESE CARE

Specialty cheese can require extra care at retail to show at its best when a customer takes it home. There are a few things to keep in mind when handling bulk specialty cheese.

Washing

If you have a hard cheese with a few spots of mold on the surface of the rind, these can easily be wiped off with a clean cloth or paper towel, you can also use a little water or white vinegar to clean the surface of a hard cheese.

The surface mold on hard cheese isn’t a defect, it’s a sign the cheese is being kept in an environment suitable to continued ripening/aging. Consider it a good thing when hard cheeses grow mold!

However, when you cut and wrap a hard cheese with spots of mold on the rind, the pieces cut and wrapped with these spots of mold will deteriorate more quickly than those without, so it is advisable to clean rind surfaces of hard cheeses prior to cutting and wrapping for sale.

Trimming

On occasion, hard cheeses will have cracked at some point in their journey from the dairy to the retailer and if the cheese has an open-bodied texture, the mold from the surface of the rind may migrate through the crack into the body of the cheese. In most cases, this cheese is fine and safe to sell, but it is advisable to trim the affected area away, otherwise the mold will penetrate further into the body of the cheese.

It is advisable to build a certain amount of shrink into the pricing of your cheeses. The more you handle, sample, cut and wrap cheese, the more shrink you will incur. Welcome shrink as an acceptable loss, it is helping you sell great cheese and build trust with your customer base.

When the cryovac bag seal is compromised on a rindless block of hard cheese, sometimes there will be mold growth on the surface of the cheese near where the bag seal was broken. This is not cause to waste the entire block, simply trim away the affected area and trim an extra ¼” or so to account for the mold spores which may have penetrated a bit deeper into the cheese paste.

Wrapping for Display and Sale

Air is the #1 enemy when it comes to cheese-wrapping. Limit the amount of air trapped between the cut surface of the cheese and the plastic. Over time, mold will grow in these air pockets, resulting in unnecessary trimming/shrink.

Large wheel portions – the natural rinds of hard cheeses typically harbor colonies of aerobic molds, bacteria and yeasts that contribute flavor, aroma and character to the cheese. When these large pieces are wrapped for display or storage for longer periods of time, the surface bugs emit gasses that will be trapped under plastic film. Therefore, it is important with large portions of cut wheels of hard cheeses to only cover the cut surface with plastic and allow the rind to breathe.  

Temperature Control 

Severe temperature fluctuations are very detrimental to specialty cheese quality – keep cheeses refrigerated.

Colder (but not freezing) is always better for cheese (except for consumption).

There are some cheeses that are OK to keep displayed at room temperature. This is determined by the combination of two key metrics, how acidic the cheese is (pH) and the level of moisture in the finished cheese, a.k.a. water activity level (Aw). Distributors can help provide verification for which cheeses can be safely displayed at ambient temperatures for extended periods of time, however, stores should work proactively with their local health inspector to determine if this will be allowed in your specialty department.

Take regular temperature check readings daily (recommend minimum of 3 – beginning, middle and end of shift) and track on a monthly spreadsheet.

Desiccation – Removal of Moisture

Left to its own devices, cheese will dry out. It’s your responsibility to manage this natural occurrence. A little bit of drying is OK (but it is also shrink), but allow too much drying and you compromise cheese quality. Your role is to maintain the moisture already in the cheese.

For small, soft ripened cheeses that are shipped naked in a box, it can be helpful to keep back stock boxes wrapped in plastic, poked with a few holes to protect the cheese from drying out in the cold dry air of a cooler.

If you notice the rind of a hard cheese becoming flakey, it’s too dry and should be wrapped more tightly

If you notice the rind of the cheese becoming slimy and strong-smelling, it’s too wet, and should be allowed to dry slightly in the cold dry air of the cooler (but not too long).


About Mites

Certain cheeses with natural rinds have a tendency to develop mite infestations. This will manifest as a brown powder (mite waste) collecting on and under the cheese. This is not a defect, it is totally normal, but important to manage.

Isolate cheeses affected by mites and use a stiff brush and/or vacuum to remove mites and mite waste before cutting, wrapping and displaying these cheeses. Wipe a small amount of vegetable oil on the rind, this will keep the mites at bay for a while, but they will come back.

Examples: Mimolette, certain cheddars