Conditions are ripe: cheese cave and cellar basics

At least once a week, a Hoard’s Dairyman magazine editor will stand up and announce, “If anyone’s looking for me, I’ll be down in the Cheese Cave.”

Unfortunately for the editors, this isn’t a cheese cave in the traditional sense: a cavern where cheese is lovingly tucked away and looked after while it ages to perfection. The magazine’s “Cheese Cave” is a soundproof room tucked away on the quiet lower level of our Wisconsin offices, where conditions are perfect for recording podcasts and hosting webinars.

Real cheese caves, and their modern equivalents — cheese cellars — boast ideal conditions as well: the right temperature and humidity to perform alchemy on the cheeses that benefit from affinage (that’s cheese-speak for ripening/aging). In fact, without the specific conditions of some of the world’s most famous cheese caves, some varieties wouldn’t exist (Roquefort, for example, relies on a fungus that thrives in the Mont Combalou caves in Roquefort-sur-Soulzon). Whether cheeses are aged in cellars or caves, temperature plays into how quickly the variety develops, while humidity greatly impacts texture. Categories like Camembert require moisture levels of around 90% to 94% to achieve their classic soft but dense consistency. Cheddar makers aim for humidity levels of 80% or lower.

Those same factors matter when it comes to storing the finished product at home. If you can, devote one of your refrigerator’s crisper drawers to cheese; the temperature and humidity levels are more stable in this enclosed space. Stored properly in this “cheese cave” of your own, your collection will last longer and taste better.