Author Topic: Cheese Question From A Cheese Newbie!!!  (Read 2549 times)

kreplech

  • Guest
Cheese Question From A Cheese Newbie!!!
« on: August 04, 2008, 03:36:46 AM »
Hello All,

I'm new here, but it looks like you all have a very nice community of cheese lovers.

I actually have a question for my parents. They recently went to Denmark and came home with an enormous amount of very good  gouda. Unfortunately, they have no idea what to do with it - and it took them so long to get home that the cheese is now green. Is it still good? How should they store the gouda? Not in the fridge, right? Any advice you can give is greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks,
M

Cheese Head

  • Guest
Re: Cheese Question From A Cheese Newbie!!!
« Reply #1 on: August 04, 2008, 03:51:57 AM »
Hi kreplech and welcome to the forum.

Cheese is a living breathing food that needs is aged at cooler 50-55F temperature, if you don't have this then the next best place is household fridge as room temperature of 75% is too high. It also needs to be at certain high humidity or when aged, sealed by a rind or by wax or sometimes by plastic. As you say it is green it sounds like mold and thus that it does not have a rind all around it like you can buy some balls of Gouda. The mold needs to be removed, I'd recommend using a clean brush and brine, salt water. Once cleaned and ried with paper towel, I'd store in fridge in wrapping paper that it shipped in and preferably in high humidity cheese drawer or mostly sealed box.

Hope this helps.


Tea

  • Guest
Re: Cheese Question From A Cheese Newbie!!!
« Reply #2 on: August 04, 2008, 09:01:59 PM »
As Cheese Head has said, cheese is food, and should be given the usual due care.  We are so used to all these processed foods that contain so many preservatives, that we tend to forget that food spoils.
If it is green, then I would have told you to toss it, but I supposed it is worth trying what Cheese Head said and see what happens. 
Hope you come back and tell us what the end result is, would be interesting to know for future reference.

Cheese Head

  • Guest
Re: Cheese Question From A Cheese Newbie!!!
« Reply #3 on: August 05, 2008, 11:56:43 PM »
PS: When you look at many cheese culture manufacture websites, they also make many mold inhibitors and other additives etc. So as Tea says most bulk manufactured cheese had very long shelf lifes. Your cheese as high quality could have less of these . . . resulting in your mold, you need to scrub it completely off and then hopefully you are good to go.