Put Your Leftover Cheese Wrapper To Good Use

If you've ever bought your cheese from the deli counter at the grocery store — or an actual deli — then you're probably familiar with cheese paper, which is paper coated in a combination of wax and polyethylene. What you might not know is that this covering is actually how you should be storing your cheese. While you won't find this wrapping on your Kraft singles, folks who are particularly serious about their fresh cheese will always choose cheese paper over plastic. If you also consider yourself a cheese lover, you may want to think twice before throwing out your cheese paper next time you finish up the Muenster — otherwise, you may have been storing your cheese wrong all along.

Cheese-mongers and deli workers alike use cheese paper because it actually keeps your cheese fresher than any other storage method. This special paper's coating keeps condensation and moisture away from the actual product. At the same time, it allows air to reach the cheese, which prevents it from drying out or going bad too quickly.

While the layer of wax and polyethylene found on cheese paper keeps your cheese fresh, plastic essentially has the opposite effect. If you're tossing your cheese paper in the trash and putting your cheese in a plastic bag or plastic wrap, you're actually making your cheese worse, even though it may feel like it's better sealed for freshness. Not only should you resist the temptation to throw out your cheese paper, but you can save it for future use, too. Reusing paper that's touched food may seem unsanitary, but because of the waxy coating, you can rinse off used cheese paper, dry it off, and keep it for the next time you have cheese on hand.

If you frequently have cheese in the fridge, you may even want to invest in some cheese paper to store alongside your plastic wrap and aluminum foil. If you have cheese from the grocery store that came in plastic, you can even remove it from its original packaging and wrap it in some wax paper before sealing it into a plastic bag. This will ensure your cheese lasts as long as possible.