Rind - Unwanted Blue Mold

[CdnMorganGal]

Ive been sick for a few weeks and havent been checking my cheeses - just did so today.  Uh oh!  My 5lb Fankhauser basic hard cheese was practically covered in a powdery blue mold, and this being my first 5lber I hadnt pressed it enough and the mold has grown into the cracks.  The cheese was being aged in a plastic bag with most of the air removed.  The mold didnt smell bad - hint of a Roquefort smell - but dont think it could have been contaminated by my blue cheeses having been in the bag.  The pic below was taken after I scraped the cheese. I tasted a very small piece that had some blue and it just tasted like the regular hard cheese.  What should I do next?  Use a grater to get the rest of the mold off? Salt and/or vinegar it? or just leave it and eat it til the day it doesnt taste good?  Thanks for your input!

[Cheese Head]

Cheese looks great! Blue mold is everywhere in the wild, especially if you are also making a blue mold cheese, it's highly contagious and a couple spores before you bagged it would have done it. As your cheese has cracks I don't think you will ever get it fully out, even with grating the rind. My vote is to not fight it, you could control it on rind with brush & vinegar until you consume it, I'm surprised you don't have more of a blue flavour.

[MrsKK]

It may not be old enough to have the blue flavor yet.  I would continue to age it - you just may end up with a very interesting cheese.

[CdnMorganGal]

I thought I would update you on this accidental blue cheese of mine.  The first wedge we cut out of the cheese tasted mainly just like a hard cheese, with maybe a hint of roquefort if you were looking for it.  After the wedge was cut out, the blue started spreading onto the open faces.  At about 6months, had a piquant flavor with definite roquefort flavor - mainly enjoyed by people that love blue cheese.  Local Costa Ricans, never having been exposed to that taste didnt like it.  At approx 10-11months old, the flavor of the cheese had mellowed, texture had softened and EVERYONE that tasted it, LOVED IT!  The final piece was consumed at a very small get-together today, and I received orders totalling 4kg for Xmas delivery.  It wasnt until I reread this thread that I realized how old this cheese really was - I think I will have a sampling party before Xmas - just in case the new blues havent aged enough to taste really good yet, the customers will have the opportunity to purchase other cheeses of mine.

Now, to try and recreate that cheese... ie) have the curds a bit too cool to knit tightly together; not press it quite hard enough, etc etc LOL  I will also be trying several variations, ie) changing the curd cooking temp, cultures, etc.  I might as well make several variations within a short time period - for easier taste comparison when its time.  And the really funny part is that I had tried making a Stilton and Cambozola type cheeses which ended up having to be thrown away - dying blue molds, other molds starting up, etc etc.  I dont seem to have the knack for making softer cheeses, but my hard cheeses are winning converts all over the place!  Thank you everyone for all your help!

[Boofer]

Congrats on a well-aged accident! 

-Boofer-