Mold on cheese - Do you cut it out or trash the whole thing?

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Hopz

Senior Cook
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OK, I think I know what you are going to say, but just let me put it on the table for discussion.

Say you look in the fridge and pull out the tupperware container with a block of cheddar cheese in it. There is a spot or two of the familiar green and beige mold. Ummm.

Do you cut it off and eat the cheese, or do you utter some invective and throw it out?
 
With a harder cheese such as cheddar, you can remove the "discolorations" and eat the rest. I have done that.

With softer cheeses, that's not such a good idea.
 
Like Andy said, hard cheeses you can do it, but you need to cut the mold out the right way. You need to cut a certain amount (I forgot how much, 1/4 inch at least maybe) and make sure the knife does not touch any of the mold.

With soft cheeses you should throw it out.

That being said, I usually toss it if it is moldy even if it is a hard cheese. the thought of eating it just grosses me out too much. Cheese does not last long in my house though so it usually does not have a chance to get to that point.
 
If it's a hard cheese I cut the mold off & eat or use the rest of it, depending on how much mold is there. If it's a lot, I throw it out. But yeah, I do throw out soft cheeses if they have mold on them.
 
Soft cheeses, I give in and toss, but never hard cheese if I can even get a little piece away from the mold.

What did you think everyone would say????
 
GB said:
With soft cheeses you should throw it out.

NO!!! I am NOT tossing out my gorgonzola!! I am gonna eat the whole thing!!:-p

Anyway, with firm cheeses, if you cut away the suspicious portion, it is perfectly fine, we regularly do it... unless the case is so extreme that the entire surface is covered with the green stuff...unfortunately we have allowed a few poor left over pieces that got pushed over behind everything in the fridge get to that state, then... not much can be done..
 
I cut and eat too; if I am in doubt as to how soon it will be used up though, I will shred the rest that was saved from the mold and freeze it for a later date.
 
I cut it off, making sure it hasn't also tunnelled a bit further into the cheese. I cut it off of soft cheeses also. And blues.

But it doesn't happen too often because I vac seal my cheeses.
 
I'm a "cut & eat" too. But I also do a little "taste test" of the reserved portion to make sure the mold just wasn't a warning that the whole cheese had turned.
 
I asked my dad one time about moldy cheese, his reply, Have you ever seen a cheese cave? Cut the mold off and eat the cleaned up part. He said that hung to cure cheese had mold on it which is trimmmed before being wrapped for sale! I don't know for certain, but, dad speaks, I listened:LOL:
kadesma
 
Candocook said:
...making sure it hasn't also tunnelled a bit further into the cheese.
This is the only problem as far as I am concerned. Otherwise I am of the 'cut and eat' camp regardless of cheese hardness and amount of mold formed. There is, however, a reddish mold that appears on feta cheese when it is too far gone that I would not take chances with. Incidentally, feta is the worst behaving cheese I know of with respect to Candocook's tunnelling syndrome because of its porous and crumbly texture which allows 'tunelling' to advance very quickly and much deeper than just 'a bit further.'
 
Vac pac cheese, no more mold... for at least 6 weeks that is!!! But before the vac pac, I think I just tossed it.
 
boufa06 said:
I am of the 'cut and eat' camp regardless of cheese hardness and amount of mold formed.
It is not recommended that soft cheeses with mold be eaten. It is too easy for the mold to spread throughout the whole thing. You can not always see it either.

Here is a page that may help.

Here is another.
 
The only cheese we keep is shredded mozerella and cheddar in our freezer.
My mom says all cheese is "evil."
My brother, my dad and I make short work of the others. May it be for pizza, nachos, or quelsadillas.
 
'Cut and eater' here. I don't really do the soft cheese thing unless it's purchased for a special event or platter. Then it's only around for a day (or a few hours).

Thanks for the comments from the vac packers. I was going to ask about that. I'm considering the purchase of a vac pac system, but the money's a bit tight because of ski season and I don't want to get a cheap model.
 
I happily just cut the pretty blue/green stuff off and eat what is underneath. Agree re cheeses such as fetta, camembert etc, chuck them out if they have been attacked.

Kadesma, I believe your Dad is correct. I was shocked when I first moved to Italy to see mold on SO many things. The salami's etc hanging in my in-laws cantina were covered in a thick coating of mold. Peel the skin away and the salami was always moist and perfect. Cheeses also. There is one cheese however that I wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole. Dont know the English word, or even if there is one. My BIL called it Marscapa, it is a mountain cheese similar to marscapone but much heavier, denser. The idea is to leave it until it turns a greenish/yellow colour and you can smell it from a mile away. Then it is ready to eat. My sister banished it from the house. Enrico would just cut the furry bits off and enjoy.
To me, that cheese was definitely ' off', but he obviously had a cast iron stomach. Or something. ;)

Lyn
 
it also depends on the mold color too, greens/blues are ok, there are some that you can`t see though esp in soft cheeses as already stated here, Deep 6 `em!
pathogens such as Listeria are also more likely on soft cheeses esp unpasteurised.

as for hard cheeses and extra mature types, cut it off and eat the rest, and if you can ID the type, it`s even ok to ignore the mold and eat it, the same applies to mychology though, so best play safe and chuck the mold out.

this doesn`t apply to cheeses like Danish Blue though :)
 
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