Was proud I planned out buying a couple of pounds of cheddar from the supermarket and keeping it in our spare fridge for a year and had aged cheddar for Thanksgiving baked mac and cheese last November.
It’s not mold, it’s calcium lactate (2018)
51–60 of 236 posts
Re: It’s not mold, it’s calcium lactate (2018)
#52Re: It’s not mold, it’s calcium lactate (2018)
#53I'm now kind of upset at myself that I have thrown out perfectly good Cheddar in the past due to white spots.
Also, if you get bright white(!) spots on cheese like Brie (which is made with white fungus), it's usually just the cheese "reactivating". You - theoretically - don't even need to cut off anything.
I’ve eaten brie weeks after sell by date. It just turns into a firmer cheese by then no striking difference in taste really.
Re: It’s not mold, it’s calcium lactate (2018)
#54Was proud I planned out buying a couple of pounds of cheddar from the supermarket and keeping it in our spare fridge for a year and had aged cheddar for Thanksgiving baked mac and cheese last November.
If you're ever in Pullman, Washington, stop in at the WSU dairy store and get a few cans of Cougar Gold cheddar. Cheese in a can sounds weird, but it's delicious, made by the students, and it ages really well -- I've got some cans in my fridge which are coming up on a decade old now. It's kind of a waste to use an aged can for mac and cheese, but I used part of a younger can for mac & cheese and it came out beautifully.
Re: It’s not mold, it’s calcium lactate (2018)
#55Visited Gouda in the Netherlands and learned this. Best cheese I’ve ever had.
Old aged gouda is the best cheese I ever laid on my tongue. We live in Switzerland next to French border, so there is no end to universe of fine aged original Gruyeres, Beaufort or even Cheddar (but that one probably worse than what one can get in UK), plus all AOC Italian ones. Simply hard cheeses with grain, there are hundreds to choose from.
I love them all, but that gouda taste is something else to me and my wife. French shops just around the border luckily import some of it, I never saw it in Switzerland shops.
One way to upmark any cheese for us to put ie black truffles or wild black garlic in it.
Talking about gouda, gotta get me some slices before kids munch it all again.
Re: It’s not mold, it’s calcium lactate (2018)
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
People are super religious about this but I've never been able to tell pre-shredded cheese from cheese I've shredded myself and I don't think anyone else can tell the difference in a blind taste test.
Perhaps the best example is parmesan. You should buy a small brick and shred it, then compare to the Kraft tube we all know -- the difference is massive.
I've had both and I'm going to have to disagree with you here. For the other cheeses, buying a brick is always the right choice. For parmesan, if its going on pasta I'm picking the green plastic tube of presumably mostly filler 100% of the time. Brick parm lacks the proper texture and has too strong of a flavor. Green tube mystery powder I can pour onto my pasta in mounds that then absord the butter making a soft delicious wet sand. Sometimes if I'm looking for a snack I just pour the green tube mystery powder directly into my mouth.
Re: It’s not mold, it’s calcium lactate (2018)
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
People are super religious about this but I've never been able to tell pre-shredded cheese from cheese I've shredded myself and I don't think anyone else can tell the difference in a blind taste test.
Perhaps the best example is parmesan. You should buy a small brick and shred it, then compare to the Kraft tube we all know -- the difference is massive.
Actual Parmesan Reggiano and kraft tube are not even meant to be compared...
Re: It’s not mold, it’s calcium lactate (2018)
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also, if you get bright white(!) spots on cheese like Brie (which is made with white fungus), it's usually just the cheese "reactivating". You - theoretically - don't even need to cut off anything.
I’ve eaten brie weeks after sell by date. It just turns into a firmer cheese by then no striking difference in taste really.
Yeah, not much seems to happen to Brie - it stays fairly mild. Unlike Camembert, which gets significantly stronger and runnier over time.
Re: It’s not mold, it’s calcium lactate (2018)
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
People are super religious about this but I've never been able to tell pre-shredded cheese from cheese I've shredded myself and I don't think anyone else can tell the difference in a blind taste test.
taste is subjective, so I won't argue that point (although I do disagree with it), however if you're going to melt the cheese, it's very easy to tell the difference side by side.
The anticaking agent doesn't have an effect on taste afaict, but it really is a large difference in texture.
Some people key more on olfaction/taste, I have nervous system quirks that cause me to key heavily on texture.
Re: It’s not mold, it’s calcium lactate (2018)
#60Visited Gouda in the Netherlands and learned this. Best cheese I’ve ever had.
Old aged gouda is the best cheese I ever laid on my tongue. We live in Switzerland next to French border, so there is no end to universe of fine aged original Gruyeres, Beaufort or even Cheddar (but that one probably worse than what one can get in UK), plus all AOC Italian ones. Simply hard cheeses with grain, there are hundreds to choose from. I love them all, but that gouda taste is something else to me and my wife…
Same, tbh. I love cheese. But that aged Gouda is absolutely memorable. I can literally taste it now haha