I’ve often been fooled into believing kitchen myths. Sometimes my fellow home cooks are the ones who perpetuate the myth, but more often it comes from my own mother. And who can dispute a mother’s advice, no matter how it may defy conventional wisdom? Superstition, it seems, rules my kitchen.
When the truth is revealed, I'm often left with mixed feelings, like when I was a kid and realized that the tooth fairy wasn't real. I played along for years, even though in the back of my head logic told me that there was no way a pixie-sized fairy could carry around that many teeth.
But the truth will set you free, right? So in my pursuit of the truth, I’ve investigated some of the more prevalent myths to free myself from kitchen folly.
Myth #1: The best place to store coffee is in the freezer or the fridge.
False. If you want to keep your coffee fresh and flavorful, the best place to store it is in a cool, dry place and in an airtight container. Because coffee beans are porous, they will soak up the smells of any moisture in your freezer or fridge and lose their flavor. Ground coffee is especially sensitive because there is more surface area that potentially can be exposed to odors. As a general rule, ground coffee shouldn’t be stored for more than a week, and whole roasted beans shouldn’t be stored for more than two weeks. So as tempting as it may be to buy coffee in bulk, storing it can negate your efforts to save some dough. Unless you can buy the beans green, that is. Green coffee beans store very well in the freezer, and you should only take them out once and never re-freeze them. But then you would have to roast and grind the beans yourself as well. All this effort before you even get to the brewing phase! Since most of us don’t get the green beans, storing coffee outside of the refrigerator and in the pantry makes the most sense.
