The cheese in the pictures was a parmesan. In August I went away for two weeks and the day I left my son borrowed the power bar that my caves were plugged into. So all my cheeses spent the next two weeks at about 30C. I plugged them back in as soon as I realized it. The havarti melted and by the time I came home it was a puddle of mold. This particular parmesan was in the same cave as the havarti. I will admit that I was incredibly discouraged. I had about 24 gallons of milk and so much time in those cheeses, that I just had to walk away for a while. So, now it's time for me to suck it up and deal with it. This is after a pretty hefty scrape and then a scrub under running water. It doesn't smell like parmesan, that's for sure. It smells like mushrooms, and there's some ammonia smell too. Should I toss it now, or might it be okay to oil it and let it keep aging for another month or two? I know it won't be parmesan as I know it, but might it be edible still?
How old is this cheese ? Had it not been for the unfortunate tropical vacation that it took would it be close to being edible yet?
The older it was the less the vacation would effect it.
From the pictures it looks fine , and the worst case scenario is the rind taste awful and you have to cut it off before serving .
24 gallons of milk ???. This must be a massive cheese , if so even better chances that the flavor did not suffer too much.
I vote for oiling and continue as normal
It was only 2 months old then, 5 months old in the pics.
It's not a 24 gallon cheese though, just 4. The 24 gallons I mentioned was all the cheeses combined; parmesan, romano, havarti, caerphilly. The romano got a bit of growth on it, but not much, and it basically looks and smells normal. I haven't tried the caerphilly yet, but it was waxed and upon visual inspection seems fine.
I don't know what he was thinking when he unplugged everything and took the power bar, but he sure felt bad when I told him what he'd done, and is going to buy the milk for my next few batches.
I wouldn't hesitate to let this age on out -- but I'd let it age out to a full 12 months at minimum. In my experience, it really does take that long for a parma to start tasting the way it should.
Note that, if you find you have to keep fighting mold grow-back, you could scrub it well, let it dry well, then vac-bag it for the remainder of its aging. I usually bag my parmas after they have aged in the cave for a couple of months, mostly to keep them from getting too dry (partly since my cave runs dry, partly because of the the small size of make - only 4 gallons, compared to the multi-hundred pound makes of the real parmesans).
So it's unanimous. :) It's going to go the distance. I'll continue to tend it and plan to taste it early next summer. The romano too. That just leaves the caerphilly. Time to make some more cheese. :D
My thanks to both of you. Eventually I'll be bolder and will not worry so much if it's gone bad. It's these experiences that will get me there.