Comments on: I left cheese out overnight. Is it still tasty?

Question: I left cheese out overnight. Is it still tasty?

FearAndLoathingInLJ — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 17:40:11 -0800

I left my cheese out overnight. Is it still okay to eat?

After yesterday's pizza, I neglected to return the cheese to the fridge. This includes a mozzarella block, loosely wrapped in plastic with an exposed end, a block of parmesean (same wrap situation), and a tub of fresh mozzarella in olivine. It was left out for approxamately 20 hours. Is any of it recoverable for tonight's pizza?

By: matteo

matteo — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 17:46:24 -0800

yes.

By: altcountryman

altcountryman — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 17:48:55 -0800

I've done this many a time, and I'm still around. Even if there's some bacteria in your kitchen, the baking of the pizza should kill it. And the cheese isn't any more likely, I don't think, to carry bacteria than anything else (your hands, utensils, etc.).

Enjoy!

By: nebulawindphone

nebulawindphone — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 17:50:11 -0800

Dude, that's what cheese is for. That's why we invented it. It's milk that you can leave out too long and eat it and not get sick.

By: now i'm piste

now i'm piste — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 17:52:20 -0800

ditto everything so far, nothing wrong with leaving cheese out of the fridge for extended periods of time. It's already spoiled milk.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 18:10:34 -0800

You bet! Enjoy!

By: The Deej

The Deej — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 18:14:00 -0800

Well heck, Velveeta is sold on the regular un-cooled shelves in the grocery store. Oh wait. You said cheese. Sorry.

But I vote yes as well.

By: zerokey

zerokey — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 18:34:31 -0800

The great thing about cheese is:
when part of the block goes moldy, just slice off the mold and eat the rest. (This grosses some people out, for some reason).

By: mwang1028

mwang1028 — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 18:48:30 -0800

@ zerokey:
I've heard when one part of a food goes moldy, you should throw out the whole thing. Is this untrue for cheese?

By: cobaltnine

cobaltnine — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 18:57:37 -0800

I think we had the moldy cheese discussion before in one of the other 'Will it kill me' threads. IIRC, or if not, this is what I believe: Soft cheese = ew, no, because you don't really know where the mold is and hard cheese is fine to excise and eat.

By: Cat Pie Hurts

Cat Pie Hurts — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 18:59:31 -0800

I do the cheese mold cutting off thing.
I started doing it after reading about it in a book describing medieval life.

In retrospect, maybe food safety tips from medieval times aren't the way to go, but I haven't gotten sick or died from it yet.

By: kamelhoecker

kamelhoecker — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 19:01:17 -0800

I saw this hilarious segment about a marketer who was decoding consumers. He found that the French see the cheese as alive, and in the US it was dead. That's why it's kept in the fridge in the US, and allowed to sit out an breathe in France.

No, it won't kill you. You might actually find it has more flavour. (Although, depending on the cheese, that might not be a good thing.)

By: stewiethegreat

stewiethegreat — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 19:35:31 -0800

"I saw this hilarious segment about a marketer who was decoding consumers. He found that the French see the cheese as alive, and in the US it was dead. That's why it's kept in the fridge in the US, and allowed to sit out an breathe in France."

Clotaire Rapaille, author of "My Cheese is Dead." Great Frontline episode. :)

By: Tacos Are Pretty Great

Tacos Are Pretty Great — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 19:55:10 -0800

Yet another "I cut off the moldy bits and use the rest."

Sadly, I have to do this before Señora Tacos notices the mold, because she disagrees with the practice.

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 20:06:50 -0800

That's not a mold. THIS is a mold!

By: JohnnyGunn

JohnnyGunn — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 20:07:37 -0800

I cut the cheese.

Just slice off any mold and go for it, like everyone else said.

By: JujuB

JujuB — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 21:20:20 -0800

Instead of cutting the mold portion off, I wash it off using warm running water.

By: Margalo Epps

Margalo Epps — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 21:22:57 -0800

Slicing off mold works for some foods and not for others -- in cheese it is possible to see where the mold is and carefully cut off a half inch or so around. In bread, by the time you see it has spread all over and the loaf should be tossed.

I do wonder if the practice of cutting is as true of soft cheese as it is of hard...

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 04:34:00 -0800

You're actually not supposed to refrigerate cheese (with the exception of perishable cheeses like cottage cheese, which are so close to milk that they shouldn't even really be called cheese except for the added enzymes).

You will be fine.

By: kmennie

kmennie — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 07:25:10 -0800

Re. cutting mould off soft cheeses: no. Hard, fine, but the usual recommendation is to just pitch it if it's soft. "Such foods with high moisture content can be contaminated below the surface..."

True, in my experience. The softer the cheese, the more likely you are to find little veins of fur after hacking off the outside.

By: M.C. Lo-Carb!

M.C. Lo-Carb! — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 07:52:31 -0800

AskMe: I left my cheese out overnight. Is it still okay to eat?

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 09:43:46 -0800

You're actually not supposed to refrigerate cheese

Quite. Don't worry about it, and don't put it back in the fridge either.

By: loiseau

loiseau — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 09:57:17 -0800

20 answers and no "cutting the cheese" references?

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 11:40:15 -0800

Go for it.