I just opened a store bought branded cheese yesterday, to be specific Mclelland Mild cheddar 200 grams. I bought it on Dec. 7, 2009 and the expiry date was Dec. 12, 2009 and production date was Mar. 30, 2009. To my amazement, the flavor of the cheese transformed dramatically. Normally, the Mclelland Mild cheddar is a bitter, sour and boring tasting cheese. But the one that i aged for almost a year, tasted way way better. Even better than the 18 month old branded cheddar that i bought before. I didn't know it was even possible to age a pre cut packaged store bought cheese. I thought the flavor and taste will not develop at all.
By aging it, it became very sweet almost sweet as a candy, a bit salty, moist, no bitterness, it developed a strong cheddar and fruity flavor and absolutely no off flavors. Also aging it was extremely easy and requires no effort all. You dont have to remove molds, maintain humidity, maintain proper temperature and among other things. All i did was put it in the fridge and left it as it is. Also this cheese was stored in the fridge with fluctuating temperature, there are times i even turn off the fridge for a day, making the temp. go up to 70f making the cheese sweat but the temp. is mostly at 50f.
I find it funny that the supermarket where i bought the cheese sell cheeses buy 1 take 1 if its near its expiry date, they dont know that a smei-hard/hard cheese will never spoil as long as its vacuumed packed and refrigerated and it gets better with age. From now on i will stock up on branded semi-hard & hard cheeses and age them myself. This sure beats making your own, its a lot less costly, almost no effort, and guaranteed success but i will still not stop from making my own cheese because of the challenge. I hope you guys learns something from my experiment.
