I've been working in the furnace that is Houston Texas all summer. My home in Cleveland, I'm told, has also been hot this summer.
So here I am in my office, and I get an urgent call from my wife, stating that my my Cleveland garage based cheese cave temp was no longer 57 F, but instead was now climbing through 77 F. (ended up north of 88 F)
She assures me that this was not the case in the morning...
I immediatly instructed her to move the 3 22lb wheels of parm and associated smaller portions of cheddar (and all my wine) to my basement which is around 65 F.
Something obviously 'let go' in my cave..
So, my question is this. Did I just kill my parms?
I've read that bad things happen to parm above 70 F. While I am sure that the core of my parms never reached 77 F, the outer inch or two most certainly did.
Hmmm.
For a short exposure, I'm sure there's not a problem. Worst case is you could have melted out some butterfat. I know you haven't made cheese in a while so these have some age on them. The bacteria are all pretty much dead and proteolysis is working to develop a complex flavor. It's all good. Not to worry.
.....but you need to get busy making more. ::)
Yeah, for parm, they should be ok. High moisture and complex rind cheeses would do a lot worse.
If you decide to toss them, I'll take 'em. ;)
It helps that they have aged for many months. A young cheese would have had more problems.
They are now sitting in a 62 deg basement room.
We shall see. I plan to open one in December.
Gee I have one with a birthday in December also.