Hard cheeses such as Gruyere, Cheddar etc, get wrapped in waxpaper first, then I wrap them in Saran type foil. Wax paper lets the cheese breathe and prevents mold, the Saran limits and delays the drying out.

I rewrap soft cheeses like Camembert, Brie and blue cheeses in the wrap they're sold in, and then wrap Saran over them after opening.

Never wrap any cheese in Saran type foil directly, it will cling to the cheese, and prematurely rot it.

What is "Saran type foil", please? I only know Saran Wrap, i.e. standard plastic wrap. I wasn't aware they made any kind of foil as well.

writer - my apologies for the confusion, English is not my first language. As I wrap with foil, in my mind they're the same or at least interchangeable terms :-)

There are many formulations for making your own brine for storing feta- Food52 and CooksIllustrated have advice. Sadly, I consume the cheese so quickly that even if I buy the kind that is not brined, I don't have to store it for long.

I found wonderful waxed paper sandwich bags at Whole Foods that we use for all but the stinkiest cheese. When it's smells bad, the bag goes into a sealed container, when that still isn't enough, it goes in the garage and when it's epoisses, the rule is you must have enough people here to eat it in one sitting! Lol!

Anyone try beeswax cloth for wrapping cheese?

Not into coddling anything! I've always wrapped any leftover cheese in saran wrap and never have a problem storing it, but we don't buy large quantities.

Once you've wrapped your cheese blocks, how do you store the blocks or hunks or whatever, to keep them from migrating or worse, hiding behind or under something until they're uneatable? We have a french door refrigerator with one veg and one fruit drawer and one shallow, full length bottom drawer with a lift lid. If I used the bottom drawer, they'd still be sliding around with the drawer movement. Does anyone have a bin or holder they love? I've tried different sizes but they're like the beds in Goldilocks, too small or too big, never just right.

Can I also ask how people store bags of shredded cheese? We usually have a couple. I'm just trying a long, narrow bin and it actually seems to be holding them upright so I can remember to use them.

We always have cheeses. I purchase most from Costco. My husband says we have a cheese...no wait, dairy problem.

I have the shallow full width drawer in my fridge. It holds 3lb brick of cream cheese, end wrapped in plastic wrap, then back in the box until its less than 1/2 way gone, then just wrapped. Bags of shredded cheese in there on their sides. Packages of sliced, same thing. American, gallon zip, but the daily in a square ziploc container.

I actually hand shred most of the time as needed unless its a great sale price. I keep blocks in zip bags mixed, but we eat it up pretty quickly.

Righy now, I have mild cheddar, cave aged cheddar and creamy harvarti in the "zipbag" together.

We also usually eat it WAY before it goes bad. That said our oldest is really into super sharp grated cheddar (which we use on all manner of things..). May not be scientifically correct, but I grate half the block of Tillamook, and wrap the other half tightly in Reynolds Wrap and stow it in the "dry" drawer in our fridge. Have had it sit in there for a month or so when he was away at school, never had a mold problem. If it's something like Havarti, we slice some off, leave the rest in its original wrapper then wrap in Saran wrap, never had any go bad. On the other hand, I've had pre-sliced mega mart cheese mold up pretty quickly if left in its original wrapper. Maybe we've been lucky with our fridge.....

Well, that's a concept. If you shred your own cheddar, you won't have to figure out how to store the annoying bags.

About a month ago, I started revisiting how I eat and what I eat. So many posts on this forum talked about actual cooking, how and where folks are going to store and eat actual food. My DH travels a lot at the moment, and I realized my food consumption had devolved to pastries, wheat thins and cheese, and...if he was home, some protein and veggies at dinner. My diet was balanced because I ate several kinds of pastries. :) I've been sober for seven years, but I realized my eating was totally addictive and mindless. Physically I'm pretty active with our little "ranch", so that helped counterbalance, I think, but I began reworking the other side of the equation, what and how I eat. Our CSA started back up at just the right time.

Anyway, after beacham's condiment post, I cleaned out our refrigerator and noticed the cheese kind of sprawled out on the top shelf, being ignored. I think a plastic bin on a shelf is still the best answer for us and I'll look for the correct size.

"Are you a wiz at handling cheese?"

LOL. snort

Beachem, is that pepper jack? Yum. Pre-cutting the cheese increases surface area for moisture and mold. If your family eats it quickly then you should have nothing to worry about, tho

I must have just the right conditions in my fridge to store cheese, because I rarely have to throw anything out because of mold, and I don't use any specialty wraps. Cheddar, parm, and feta blocks are on hand at all times in the fridge meat/dairy drawer. Parmesan is so hard I think it would last forever. I keep it in zip baggies. Cheddar I store in its original wrapping sealed in a zip baggie. Feta blocks I buy in little plastic containers, and I keep it in the original packaging. I've tried freezing cheese (havarti, fontina, gouda) but the texture changes. So I only buy specialty cheeses that I will use immediately in a recipe.

@zsmith like barncats I munch on cheese and crackers so I cut up a small amount of Gouda and pepper jack into cubes. Just enough for three days or so. I also slice the pepper Jack for my famous Eggo Bagel.

Hubby always ask me to make his breakfast as soon as I open my eyes. It's easier to keep a few slices available. I keep the rest of the block in was paper and foil.

This way, breakfast for him is done in 6 minutes while I brush my teeth.

We love cheese and usually have several around at all times. Usually slices of cream havarti, provolone, and pepper Jack. Then bags of shredded Mexican cheeses, and sharp cheddar. We usually always have a container of roped provel, but I know it's a St. Louis thing, so not available everywhere.

I don't buy blocks of cheese often, unless it's Parmesan or Parmigiano-Reggiano to hand shred for pasta.

I've always just stored our bags of shredded cheeses in the bags they come in. They don't seem to go bad that quickly.

If there's a better way, I'd love to hear it.

We shred our own from the bricks, which we store in their own packaging in a Rubbermaid plastic container in the fridge. But, someone dropped the lid on a gas range top for a split second, so it has a long skinny hole melted in in. So, it stays fresh but moisture escapes to prevent mold, but not so much as to dry out the cheese! Specialty cheese like Brie or something pricy, we usually finish right up. Feta stays in its container in the fridge door, and it's so versatile we seem to use it up before anything happens to it.

Keep in mind that cheese doesn't actually have to be refrigerated. Refrigeration just extends its life (which is a good thing). I make homemade cheese, and one of the steps is to leave the cheese out on the cabinet to "cure" for 5-7 days.

We store homemade cheese in wax.

Once its opened, we store cheese (and pretty much anything else) in vintage Pyrex refrigerator boxes (I have a ton of them). They're not 100% airtight, but we tend to go through it pretty fast anyway, and we try to stay away from plastic.