A few weeks ago I made a canestrato cheese based off the recipe and Q&A on NEC, then a few days ago I was brushing mold of the rind, which was nice and dry, and I noticed a dark hairy mold that I now think was Mucor, but at the time I freaked a bit and cut the spot out of the cheese and vacuum packed it prior to returning it to the cheese fridge. Thing is, I smelled the cheese prior to doing the vac packing and it smelled of mushrooms. No normal cheese smell. Is the cheese safe to eat, or is something else going on...
"Mushrooms" is a good smell for cheese :-) But, yeah, it was probably either from the mucor or very probably wild geotrichum (mine smells like shimeji mushrooms). Personally, I would not be worried at all. Natural rind cheeses smell very different when they are aging than when you cut them and eat them -- though that mushroom aroma is often prized in many natural rind cheeses.
Mike is right. What you don't want is a musty or moldy smell then again British clothbound cheddars are musty and others seems to like that musty smell.
Thanks so much. I'm just moving past waxing all my cheeses. It is a learning process for sure...