Fruit "cheese" - how to store it ?

[bitoffluff]

Hello

Im rather new to all this preserving malarkey, having not done it since i was knee high to a grasshopper "helping" my grandma which is a lot more years ago than I care to count !! However we have moved to a new house with a large garden and fruit trees so Im looking forward to learning to make lots of things.

I have just made some redcurrant "cheese" with the pulp left over from making redcurrant jelly, however none of the websites that I could find a cheese recipe on actually told me how to store it just that it was best kept for 2 months before eating. It is currently in the ramekins that I pored it into to set and covered with waxed discs and cling film then in an air tight box. Does it need to be de-moulded and wrapped or can i keep it in the ramekins ?

Thanks in hope

B

[Suelle]

I hope someone has a better answer than mine, but I think the 'cheese' should have been put into sterilised jars and treated the same way you would treat jams and jellies. I think now the only answer may be to freeze it.

[MrsWWoof]

One of my preserving books says to wrap in waxed paper and leave in a cool and dark place for 4-6 weeks to mature. Hope this helps. Not tested by me as fruit cheese is one of the things I am yet to make.

[suffolk]

I've demoulded and wrapped in waxed paper, then in tupperware-type container in fridge - it's kept in a useable condition for 3+ years.

Russian DIL says her Baboushka would wrap it in paper rubbed over with candle wax and store in a cool cupboard; she said it would keep 'for ever'. There were always some lozenges of fruit cheese and fruit 'leather' to be given to visiting children as sweets.

[Suelle]

I'm glad other people have better ideas! I think I might have misunderstood exactly what a fruit 'cheese' is.

[StokeySue]

I'm glad other people have better ideas! I think I might have misunderstood exactly what a fruit 'cheese' is.

There are definitely two kinds of fruit cheese in English language

The first is the kind you keep in a jar, is spreadable, and is similar in its lightest form to a fruit curd or what in the US is called a fruit butter

The other is a thick fruit pastille-like lump that you turn out of the mould and allow to dry out and shrink a little and often roll in sugar; membrillo (quince paste to eat with cheese is one kind

I'd keep the solid fruit pastille type wrapped in greaseproof/baking parchment in a tin or plastic box in a cool place. Which in my f;at means in the fridge, but if you have a cool pantry or cellar, that I think would be fine.

[suffolk]

It's more solid than a curd, jam or jelly - more like a .................. cheese .
Think the texture of Rowntree's fruit pastilles.

Whereas a fruit leather is more like ................ leather.
Think the texture of Rowntree's fruit gums.

[bitoffluff]

I love the Rowntree's comparison Im going to use that to explain the idea to himself who does not "Get" what im trying to do at all lol.

Many thanks for all the answers I'll tip the moulds up and get it out and then pop it in wax paper back in the tupperware in the fridge

[Zosherooney]

How inventive are you !!!! Well done, braver than me

[ianinfrance]

I make fruit cheese from quinces fairly often. Splatters like hell, but it's heavenly when you eat it. Oddly enough the other stuff, that is spreadable, I've always called a fruit butter, I didn't know it was an Americanism.

[StokeySue]

Oddly enough the other stuff, that is spreadable, I've always called a fruit butter, I didn't know it was an Americanism.

It may well be one of those things where the Americans have kept going with it and we've forgotten it
Like "fall"

[suffolk]

I've always called it a fruit butter too

[Zosherooney]

Mrs Beeton does a something and apple butter, I have made that once, bit like a jam really

[StokeySue]

May of course be regional

What I knew as damson cheese/plum cheese as a child (in Hampshire, but W Midlands family) was certainly what I have since learned to call a fruit butter, not a what I'd now call a cheese which I'd defines as something you cna slice like cheese

Which stoll leaves the lemon curd variant known as lemon cheese not fitting the pattern

[Seatallan]

Which stoll leaves the lemon curd variant known as lemon cheese not fitting the pattern

My OH's family (Yorkshire) call 'lemon cheese' what I call 'lemon curd' so I've presumed it's just a regional thing.

I agree re the fruit butter being what I always knew as fruit cheese when I was a child.

Incidentally, a Russian client of ours gave us some fruit leather recently as a present. It was the first time I had ever come across it and it was very tasty indeed. She also gave us some walnuts pickled in syrup which only I liked, so I took the jar home. I'm still trying to think of something to do with them other than just eat them out of the jar every time I pass the cupboard.

[Zosherooney]

Little story......... Many moons ago, we went to someones house for supper, they had just returned from a holiday in greece. For nibbles she had a bowl of pickled walnuts which she proceeded to tell everyone that it was a delicacy she had bought in Greece - she said they were pickled donkey bo**ocks !!!!!!!!

[Lokelani]

Incidentally, a Russian client of ours gave us some fruit leather recently as a present. It was the first time I had ever come across it and it was very tasty indeed. She also gave us some walnuts pickled in syrup which only I liked, so I took the jar home. I'm still trying to think of something to do with them other than just eat them out of the jar every time I pass the cupboard.

Depending how sweet the syrup is I wonder if you could use them in the Delia Smith recipe for Venison braised in guinness & port with pickled walnuts. Mum in law made it once & it was lovely.

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type ... lnuts.html

The recipe is no doubt intended for walnuts in pickling vinegar, but like many people, I often add a big spoonful of bramble or redcurrant jelly to venison dishes, as a bit of sweetness suits it.

If they're really sweet maybe a walnut baclava type thing? Although they may last longer & seem more special if you do just eat one each time you pass the cupboard!

[suffolk]

The walnuts sound like the ones that Moira posts about, preserved in 'glyco' - I've just found a Cypriot deli int he little town where my son lives, that stocks them - I shall be purchasing some

[Seatallan]

Yes, they're very sweet Loke and I think they are indeed like the ones Moira posts about Suffs. They're too sweet really for any savory recipe involving pickled walnuts. The Baclava suggestion is a good one and I also wondered if they would work chopped up in a coffee & walnut cake, or a coffee & walnut ice cream perhaps?

Anyway, I shall probably eat them all up before I get around to doing anything else with them!

[StokeySue]

Just to add to this
I made quince cheese following more or less the River Cottage recipe, setting in muffin tins. The tip to brush the moulds with a little glycerin is a good one

https://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/quince-cheese