Things to know about cheese

Cheese, which children often call “pho mai”, is a food mainly made from goat’s milk, cow’s milk, camel’s milk, sheep’s milk and deer’s milk. Cheese provides a lot of protein so you can use it instead of meat in main meals, together with potatoes, green salad and wine.

Cheese is not yet widely and regularly used in our country; it is usually seen only when professional chefs use it in some baked goods, fried meat or grilled meat… For this reason, Vietnamese homemakers still seem to hesitate when using this delicious and nutritious food.

Below are a few small tips to help you use cheese more effectively.

How to distinguish real cheese from fake cheese

Fake cheese is the type that is mixed with rice flour or sweet potato flour; it does not taste good and spoils quickly. To check whether cheese is real or fake, you can drop a few drops of iodine onto a small piece of cheese. Pure cheese will not change colour, whereas cheese that turns bright blue is certainly fake cheese (mixed with rice flour or sweet potato).

Tips for using cheese

Each person should only eat about 50 g of cheese per meal; if eaten with wine, this amount can be increased to 100 g.
The ideal drink to accompany cheese is red wine; about 70% of white wines can be paired with soft white cheeses. Do not eat cheese with wine that is too light, as it will spoil the delicious aroma and flavour of the cheese. In addition, overripe cheese can also overpower the fragrance of the wine.
For storage, you should only remove the rind or packaging of the cheese when you are going to use it immediately. Avoid taking it in and out of the refrigerator too often, as this will damage the surface of the cheese.

Tips to keep cheese soft and tasty for longer

If cheese is kept in the refrigerator after purchase, it will become dry and hard; but if wrapped only in a plastic bag, it will “sweat” and develop an unpleasant smell. One way you can keep cheese soft and tasty for longer is to place it together with a lump of sugar, then put them in a plastic bag or a bowl and cover it.

How to soften hardened cheese
When cheese becomes hard it will also develop an off-flavour, so you should cut the cheese into slices (about 1–2 cm thick), soak them in rice wine, then take them out and steam them in a bain-marie for a short while. Doing this will make the cheese soft again, almost like when you first bought it.