Author Topic: Vac Sealing - plastic taste?  (Read 2034 times)

george

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Vac Sealing - plastic taste?
« on: January 04, 2011, 09:32:12 PM »
I'm almost afraid to ask this in case I missed the answer (yes, I did search this time, but who knows?) ...

I'm looking at going ahead and doing vac sealing instead of waxing for my hard cheeses (after doing natural rind etc. for about 3-4 weeks, as I understand everyone else's experiences).  The one thing I haven't found here yet, though, is whether the plastic ends up flavoring the cheese or not.  (I've got a FoodSaver with the appropriate pricey bags, if it matters.)  I'm pretty sensitive to chemicals and other "unnatcherl" stuff, so I'd hate to invest several months in aging an experiment just to discover that I think it tastes terrible.  (Although I suppose I could always slice off lots of rind when opening them, but that just seems like a waste.)

Any takes on this?  Seems like lots of folks have been vac sealing for years. 

linuxboy

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Re: Vac Sealing - plastic taste?
« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2011, 10:00:14 PM »
HDPE, LDPE, PETE, and Nylon are all fairly neutral. But if you're ultra sensitive, it might be an issue.

Have you ever eaten cheese that you bought that was sealed in plastic? If you have and you were fine and the cheese tasted good, then you'll be fine.

zenith1

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Re: Vac Sealing - plastic taste?
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2011, 11:33:41 PM »
I agree with LB..if you have eaten store bought items packaged in a like manner you will probably not have any issues. As far as taste I have not noticed any flavor changes from vacuum bagging any of my food items.

newbie

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Re: Vac Sealing - plastic taste?
« Reply #3 on: January 05, 2011, 02:37:44 PM »
One thing I have noticed. You can get a good firm rind by leaving it out of the vacuum, but the moment you seal that rind starts to soften again. I have a year old cheddar, started with a firm rind, now on opening it the rind has almost disappeared.

Sailor Con Queso

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Re: Vac Sealing - plastic taste?
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2011, 02:52:37 PM »
I am selling my cheeses through a natural foods co-op and have had no negative comments. In fact, I feel that vac bagging seals in the flavor. This is especially true with Blues.

george

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Re: Vac Sealing - plastic taste?
« Reply #5 on: January 05, 2011, 03:04:21 PM »
Cool, thanks for the tips.  I've been getting cheese for years vac'd in 5-lb blocks from my favorite farmer dude, brought some with me when I moved, and he's shipped me some also.  It usually takes about 8 or 9 months before I start tasting the plastic with that, so start slicing off the edges.  Guess I'm just paranoid 'cause they're MY cheeses - have to protect my little babies, you know!  And since it will be extremely rare for me to be able to actually hold onto one of my own for longer than that, I guess I'm okay there.  *snicker snort*

Good to know about the rind softening, too, I wouldn't have been able to predict that.  Not sure it would bother me much in the long term, but it's nice to keep it in mind.  I do vac bag all sorts of other things, but they usually get used up within 6 months at most, so I didn't really have much to compare to.  Before now I'd just taken peeling the rinds from farmer dude's cheese as a matter of course, didn't really think about it.

Thankee!!!

Offline Boofer

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Re: Vac Sealing - plastic taste?
« Reply #6 on: January 05, 2011, 03:17:20 PM »
One thing I have noticed. You can get a good firm rind by leaving it out of the vacuum, but the moment you seal that rind starts to soften again. I have a year old cheddar, started with a firm rind, now on opening it the rind has almost disappeared.
That makes sense and is my experience as well. I don't suppose there is any way to develop a rind, vacuum-seal, and NOT have the curd equalize across the cheese to zero out the rind? Probably a case of "You can't have your rind and, after vacuum-sealing, eat it too!"  ;)

I don't know how long it takes to revert rind back to soft curd, but it seems like cheese vendors that sell vacuum-sealed cheese would cut it, seal it, and sell it within a prescribed time so that their clientele would enjoy the cheese properly. There are a lot of cheeses that are vacuum-sealed and have a rind. Perhaps with a really dry, hard rind the problem just isn't there...not enough moisture in the rest of the cheese to revert the rind.

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