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

[Reanie525i]

On hard cheeses I cut and eat - On Bleu cheese I encourage the aging and the more mold the creamier and more tasty it seems to me

 

[VeraBlue]

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.'

I keep large containers of feta at work. I can go through 10 pounds one day, and not need any more for several days. Once the container is open, however, I am adamant about changing the water every day until I finish using it.

 

[Candocook]

Have to respond about the feta tunnelling--I've never had that happen to feta. Interesting.

 

[boufa06]

I am adamant about changing the water every day until I finish using it.

Keeping the feta submerged will protect it for sure but you must do so in brine and not in tap water. The latter will cause feta to soften beyond repair. Although the same (keeping feta submerged in brine) could be done in a home fridge too, in practice this is quite difficult. When buying feta from a supermarket, it comes drained from its brine and wrapped in paper. It is in this 'packaging' (or lack of it) that trouble is more likely to appear if the feta is not consumed quickly. On the other hand, if one buys feta already packed in brine but in small containers for home use, the mere removal of the first piece of feta causes the brine level to drop significantly exposing most of the feta left in the container and eventually causing it to mould. To sum it all up, you are lucky enough to consume feta quickly and avoid spoilage problems. For the rest of us, dealing with feta storage problems is a recurring situation.

 

[BreezyCooking]

Gee - I just keep my unused feta in a closed container - no water, no brine - have had it last for weeks & weeks without any quality problems at all.

The only thing I keep in water that gets changed every day is tofu.

 

[daisy]

If cheese goes mouldy - toss it out!

Check out this site:

Can you cut mould off food and still eat it?

 

[GB]

daisy there is a big difference here though as what that study tested was cutting mold out of a sandwich, not out of a block of cheese.

 

[boufa06]

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.

While this may be so (after all how can an expert be considered expert if he doesn't sound a few alarms here and there), it has been my lifetime practice to simply cut off the mold and eat the rest of the cheese. I do recall some type of rather soft cheddar cheese that tasted so much better after molding and cleaning up. I guess you might say that ignorance is bliss! On the other hand, I might just like to live dangerously.

Seriously though, I have come to realizing quite some time ago what YT mentioned earlier in this thread, ie. that most cheese mold are quite safe to eat without even bothering to clean the molded part out. Now what expert would ever dare suggest this?

 

[GB]

Now what expert would ever dare suggest this?

Probably most assuming you know which molds you are dealing with.

 

[boufa06]

Gee - I just keep my unused feta in a closed container - no water, no brine - have had it last for weeks & weeks without any quality problems at all.

Lucky you!!! Oh how I wish I had even a fraction of your luck so as not to have to say goodbye to good feta as often as I do!

 

[boufa06]

Probably most assuming you know which molds you are dealing with.

But how can I (or anyone else) know which specific mold I am dealing with in any given situation?

 

[GB]

But how can I (or anyone else) know which specific mold I am dealing with in any given situation?

If you are educated on that sort of thing then you know, just as someone who is educated in mushrooms will know which are deadly and which are not.

 

[boufa06]

If you are educated on that sort of thing then you know, just as someone who is educated in mushrooms will know which are deadly and which are not.

What kind of education do you think would lead to this specific knowledge? As for the mushrooms, they grow abundantly here and one way or another (but certainly NOT through some sort of formal education) we have learned which ones to eat and which ones to avoid. Incidentally, there is quite a disagreement as to which mushrooms are dangerous and which are not among local folk. The most striking case is a picture perfect orange-top and pale yellowish underside mushroom that can be either speckled on top or solid orange. We consider the solid orange good to eat and the speckled ones poisonous. By contrast, people from a nearby town consider the speckled ones good and the solid poisonous. Through what type of education would we resolve such a quandrary? Judging from your post, we must be rather ignorant of such matters over here. How are things over at your side? Do average people or the educated ones know their cheese molds as well as you imply that they do?

 

[GB]

Do average people or the educated ones know their cheese molds as well as you imply that they do?

I am not implying anything of the sort. i am simply saying that there are hundreds upon hundreds of different types of mold. An expert in the field would know the names and characteristics of the different strains. The average person in their house would not. If someone has studied mold and has been educated in such things then it would be relatively safe to assume they would be abel to distinguish between harmless mold and dangerous mold.

 

[boufa06]

I am not implying anything of the sort. i am simply saying that there are hundreds upon hundreds of different types of mold. An expert in the field would know the names and characteristics of the different strains. The average person in their house would not. If someone has studied mold and has been educated in such things then it would be relatively safe to assume they would be abel to distinguish between harmless mold and dangerous mold.

Oh, okay! It seems that I may have misunderstood something. So much the better. It is not such an important point to continue debating about after all.

 

[JohnL]

If only a few minor spots, I'll cut off the mold and use the rest of the cheese. But with soft cheese, I also chuck it out.

 

[BreezyCooking]

Boufa - I don't think it's "luck" at all. I just think that feta keeps just fine in an airtight container in the fridge. Perhaps certain types of feta differ, but commercial types store just fine this way.

Again - we might be speaking of different types of feta. When I buy fresh sheeps milk feta I use it so fast that I've never had to store it. )

 

[boufa06]

Judging by the general interest, this must have been one of the most successful and indeed most revealing thread in a long time. Now that it seems that most members have had their say, it's time for the unofficial statistics. Although there is no complete uniformity (if ever there was such a thing), the results are self-evident. Even faced with the threat of mold contamination, most members by far and large, with or without reservations, would not hesitate to cut the cheese. What a bunch! I am only too happy to be counted among the cheese-cutting crowd!

 

[Hopz]

Cut it out... I am totally surprised that it took all the way to 4 pages for someone to get to the cheese cutting.

 

[middie]

I'm like everyone else. If it's hard cheese cut a good amount of the cheese off around the moldy part. Softer cheeses just toss the whole thing.