Keeping and Storing Keen’s Cheddar
We often get asked how you should best look after your piece of Keen’s Cheddar once you have purchased it.
If you have bought your cheese directly from us via our website or from our fridge, it will come in a gas flushed plastic wrapper.
Why plastic? We have researched alternatives and have found that in terms of protecting the cheese, preserving it for you and ensuring that it arrives in the best condition plastic is our best option. Our plastic bags can be washed and re-used or recycled to ensure their impact on the environment is minimised.
The best place to keep your cheese is in the fridge, in the salad compartment where it is slightly warmer and more humid than other areas. Unless you have a cool cellar or larder – the ideal temperature for keeping cheese is around 10 oC.
When kept sealed in the gas-flushed plastic bag, your piece of cheese will keep for up to 3 months, during this time the cheese will continue to mature and the flavours develop.
Once you have opened the packet, we recommend you rewrap your piece of cheese in waxed paper or foil or you can simply pop it back in the bag and return to the fridge. We don’t recommend wrapping cheese in cling film as it doesn’t preserve the cheese well. Once opened we recommend consuming your cheese within 14 days – if you haven’t eaten it by then.
Don’t worry if your cheese develops a little surface mould. Cheese moulds are present when the cheese is maturing and they will often develop when kept in your fridge as well. If this happens you can just trim off the affected areas and the rest of the cheese will still be fine to eat. Occasionally you may find a blue vein streaking through our cheese, and this is also fine to eat. Some even say this is the best bit of the cheese!
So how should you present your Keen’s Cheddar on the cheeseboard? We recommend taking the cheese out of the fridge around 30 minutes before you want to eat it as it is best consumed at room temperature. Cheese doesn’t like to be too warm though so do try and keep it cool, you can cover it with a clean damp tea towel to prevent it drying out.
Truckles
Our small truckles weigh approximately 1.5kg and large ones are around 3kg and they will be delivered to you in their cloth bindings. Your truckle will usually be around 9 – 12 months old when you receive it. If you are not going to prepare the truckle for eating straight away, we suggest keeping it in the fridge. They can be kept for up to a month in the fridge, but if you have a cold cellar they can be kept longer. Our maturing rooms are kept at a temperature of 10 – 12oC and have a high humidity of +85%, and in these conditions you could keep your truckle for a lot longer. The flavours would continue to develop and the moulds would grow on the outside, but these can be rubbed off before preparing your truckle.
Prior to cutting and serving your truckle you will need to remove the cloth – see below for instructions.
