I made my first Parmesan a couple of month ago. It didn't vent well - the curds got all to dry, and although i initially got a decent knit, the cheese cracked up pretty bad ind the cave. It contracted some blue mold on the surface and in the cracks. In a rescueattempt, i cut of and discarded the outer cracked up parts of the cheese, and waxed the remains to keep it from drying out further. In the weeks to follow, i watch a bit of blue mold grow under the wax, in the parts where it had entered the cracks. I let it grow in these few spots, in the believe that it would only ad a touch of "blue" to parts of the cheese.
Today i wanted to re-wax the parm, as i was going to wax a Caerphilly anyway. I peeled of the wax and scooped out the parts that was infected with the mold. The cracks where pretty much filled with the dark blue/blackish stuff. I had a taste of the cheese beneath the mouldy parts, and yuck! It had a terrible mouldy basement taste and smell, absolutely horrible
Not nice "blue" taste at all! The rest of the cheese got converted into (very expensive) chicken feed - the taste seemed to have slightly permeated the whole cheese.
How to recognise this type of mould ind the future? It makes me a little nervous of the Stilton ripening unprotected in the cave, and what about my plans of making a wild rind style Tomme next week? If it contracts this sort of mould, it will not be edible.