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leftover brie

post #1 of 10
1/20/09 at 2:19pm
Thread Starter 
Somewhere there was recently a thread about eating Brie, and how it should be at room temperature. I agree, it;s much better like that. But i always wondered. When you let it soften out of the fridge, then what do hyou do, put back whatever hasn;t been eaten? Doesn;t it sort of get ruined? If it gets soft, it sort of bulges where it was cut, and then if you re-refrigerate it, that becomes hard again, then to eat it a second time you have to leave it out again?
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post #2 of 10
1/20/09 at 6:04pm
I don't have the answer for you - but would be interested in knowing the answer too. the soft cheeses are delicious, but they need to be room temp. I usually end up with none left :) but it'd be handy to know.
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post #3 of 10
1/21/09 at 2:48pm
I made and served a nice baked brie at last Sunday's family party/Steelers playoff get-together, and had a little left. We have refrigerated it and taken it out to re-warm a couple times, with no noticable loss of taste. (The puff pastry is no longer so crisp, of course.)

Got a large French brie at Costco, and Pepperidge Farm puff pastry. Topped the Brie with rasberry jam and toasted slivered almonds, wrapped it and baked it. Turned out very well, though no doubt I could have found a more esteemed Brie at, say, Whole Foods.

Mike
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post #4 of 10
1/21/09 at 7:17pm
Soft-ripened cheeses should not go in and out of refrigeration. It speeds the deterioration and develops off flavours and textures (trust me on this; I get my students to experiment with it). Slice off what you need and leave the rest in the fridge.
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post #5 of 10
1/22/09 at 6:22am
Thread Starter 
That's what i suspected, but how do you possibly know how much you will eat at any time? It seems absurd to put out a nice cheese platter to warm, then have to toss all the cheese on it if half your guests are squeamish about lactose! On the other hand, once i get to eating good cheese, i often find myself wanting more than i expected. Generally, when i see cheese put out, much of it is left over, and it seems such a waste to let it go bad.

I wonder if this is off the wall, but i do it for icecream. If you microwaved it on low for just a couple of seconds, would that be the same as letting it get to room temp naturally? Then it would be possible to put more out as it's used.
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post #6 of 10
1/22/09 at 7:42am
Don't microwave- too aggressive. It's better to serve a cold cheese. Just count on about 20g of cheese per variety per person. That should be enough. For the record, I have lots of cheeses in my fridge that are leftovers and in not-so-great conditions. I DO NOT ever toss them! :) They become my midnight snack or end up in my end-of-semester mac n'cheese.
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post #7 of 10
1/23/09 at 5:09am
Thread Starter 
I have a microwave that has a very low setting, 90 watts, and to tell you the truth, after defrosting meat and getting butter quickly to room temp when i decide spur-of-the-moment to make a cake, my favorite use is to soften ice cream to where it is no longer deep frozen and hard (and tasteless) to the soft but not melted temperature where i can really enjoy it. I just put it in about 3 seconds at the lowest setting. It doesn;t melt. I would think that would be ok for brie without being aggressive. However, i wonder if the softening slowly outside has also a function of making the taste somehow mature in a special way. Or is it only a question of temperature?
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post #8 of 10
1/23/09 at 6:35am
Once a soft cheese is cut, it begins deteriorating, or put another way, it stops ageing and starts dying. So the only flavours it develops after that are off flavours, bitterness, ammonia etc. If treated well, this cut piece can take a while to do this. but it will not develop positive flavour attributes after it's been cut. The flavours you are experiencing after the cheese's stint in the nuker are simply a function of temperature. Most people swallow their cheese too fast. A microwaved cheese mimicks what should be happening in your mouth when you let the cheese melt slowly.
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post #9 of 10
1/24/09 at 4:09am
Thread Starter 
Sorry to keep harping, but isn;t that what happens also when you leave it out of the fridge for a while before eating, it's like letting it melt slowly in your mouth? So what you imply is you can eat it cold, just take your time. I mean, if you leave it to warm slowly in the kitchen or do a very delicate microwaving, you are doing the same thing, no?

I tried it last night, and admittedly it was probably not the greatest brie in the world, and i don;t have the most sophisticated palate, but it tasted to me like brie i've had that's come naturally to room temp. (It was NOT hot, it was just barely room temp, evenly soft, not cooked, at the very low wattage (90 W) for only 5 seconds. (a small piece).

Interesting points about once it's cut no longer developing flavor, just getting old.
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post #10 of 10
1/24/09 at 10:38am
I'm not terribly knowledgeable about cheese, but I once saw an episode of Alton Brown's show where he recommended using leftover bits of cheese to make fondue.
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