Taking care of cheese
 

Last night, I bought a couple of hard cheeses from an open air market in London. The guy wrapped them in a wax paper-like paper and said that I could put them into airtight tuperware containers when I got home and that they should keep for a couple of months. I'm home now. The paper they were wrapped in were quite "greasy" and the cheeses are much softer. They still smell fine.

They are small slices (100-150 grams each) but I bought them for my parents (who I won't see for a couple of days).

What is the best way to keep these so that they will last (for a couple of days...1 week tops).

Thanks.

Just the way you bought them
 

Rewrap them in new waxed paper and keep them in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

I keep most hard cheeses this way for quite a few weeks. When you use some of it, rewrap it in new waxed paper. Most times, any mold that will show up can just be trimmed off.

Marcella Hazan (Italian food expert) recommends to first wrap cheese in damp cheese cloth, and then double wrap in foil. True, that's for parmesan, but I've used that method for cheddars and other hard cheeses as well. Works very well ~ the cheeses don't "sweat" ~ you want to keep the oils in the cheese.

Surely the dampness, doubly sealed, is prime condition for mold?

Somewhat OT dealing w/soft cheeses: When we rented a house in southern France (June), we hired the cook (Provencal food expert) who advised us to leave the leftover cheeses in the porcelain dish/cover on the kitchen table overnight. By morning, all had reformed into rivulets of Reblochon/St. Nectaire/Pont-l'Eveque. Did not work very well. :eek:

dampen a little folded piece of paper towel w/white vinegar & put it in the tupperware w/ the waxed paper wrapped cheese. i seem to recall that this only works for hard cheeses.

".......and then double wrap in foil....."

Please be specific (for my sake) by " foil " do you mean 'tin' or 'plastic' ?
as " Folie " is a common term in Europe for plastic (i.e. 'Saran')
I am almost sure Marcella Hazan is referring to plastic,
As always, I stand corrected ( my sign-off line )