Can this cheese be saved?

November 28, 2008 11:40 AM

I have this particular block of Swiss cheese (see pics here, here and here) that has been in my fridge for 2 years. Yes, 2 years. It was a joke that's not funny anymore. Anyways, is the cheese safe to eat? The visible discoloration is worrisome. If not, is there anything useful I can do with it?
posted by anonymous to Food & Drink (22 answers total)

If the cheese has been refrigerated, then I don't see a particular reason why it wouldn't be edible. There is such a thing as 2 year old cheddar, after all. If you're worried about the discoloured marks, cut them off.
posted by LN at 11:49 AM on November 28, 2008

Even if is safe to eat, do you think cheese sitting in your fridge for two years and soaking up the smell/flavor of everything else in there is going to taste as good as it should? Cheese is cheap, and ruining an otherwise delicious sandwich is a damn shame.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 11:54 AM on November 28, 2008

On the other hand, think of all the flavors that cheeze has been soaking up over the last two years! Onions, garlic, kimchi, Uncle Dave's 5 alarm chili, you name it, it's in there!
posted by Pollomacho at 12:21 PM on November 28, 2008 [1 favorite]

OK, I was expecting to see cheese covered in blue fur. That looks fine to me - I've cut worse mould off cheese and eaten it before! (Er, eaten the cheese, I mean, not the mould.)

But, like Inspector.Gadget says, cheese is pretty cheap and if you're worried you might as well throw it away and buy more.
posted by badmoonrising at 12:24 PM on November 28, 2008

I would be concerned, mainly because it is sealed in plastic. Cheese isn't sterile and over a long period all the oxygen inside the package is consumed by aerobic bacteria. That's the kind of anaerobic environment in which C. Botulinum likes.
posted by randomstriker at 12:43 PM on November 28, 2008

You must be joking. Throw it away. Why is this even a question.

Seriously- what is wrong with people who are telling you to make yourself sick?

Really disturbing.
posted by Zambrano at 12:51 PM on November 28, 2008 [1 favorite]

This is neither an expensive nor remarkable cheese. While I don't subscribe to the current disposable culture of consumerism, I would not spend more than one second considering whether to throw this lump of mediocre dairy away. It has been in your fridge for two years. It was not special to begin with. It probably cost $5. Throw it out.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 12:53 PM on November 28, 2008 [9 favorites]

Here's some yo can buy.
posted by 517 at 12:53 PM on November 28, 2008

That's the kind of anaerobic environment in which C. Botulinum likes.

you could always make a nice cheesy quiche or some mac and cheese with it. Heat and botulinum toxin do not get along.
posted by Pollomacho at 1:16 PM on November 28, 2008

It's probably a bit dry and/or hard by now, but cut off the nasty bits and eat it. We've all eaten worse.
posted by blue_beetle at 1:25 PM on November 28, 2008

I'd toss it and buy a new chunk of cheese. This summer I went to my parent's cottage and found a block of cheese covered in green fuzz. I drew a picture of kermit the frog on it singing "it's not easy, being green" perhaps it can be incorporated into some sort of practical joke?
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:26 PM on November 28, 2008

I think the standard answer around here is that if you have to ask, throw it out.

As for being useful... um, bait for a mousetrap maybe?
posted by cgg at 2:05 PM on November 28, 2008

I wish people would follow links. The pics clearly show:

- It's Swiss, not Cheddar
- There are over 8 lbs. of it. That's a big brick of cheese. Are you, by any chance, a commercial kitchen? If so, don't even think about it- pitch it.

If not, open it and check. The whole point of hard cheese is that it's durable, though I confess I can't remember seeing aged Swiss at the cheese shop. As long as it's been refrigerated consistently, you can probably safely rule out botulism (wouldn't you see bulges?). My unscientific hunch is that it's probably fine, worst case is it's dried out.

Update needed!
posted by mkultra at 2:32 PM on November 28, 2008

If you take it out and it looks/smells/feels all right, but you're still not sure, you can always use it in something baked. The heat from an oven should kill any worrisome bacteria.
posted by Night_owl at 3:19 PM on November 28, 2008

I've heard from several of the cheese snobs in my life that plastic isn't good for storing cheese in. The claim is that a whole wheel of cheese will age nicely for years in a controlled environment, but a shrink-wrapped chunk of it in the fridge will go weird quickly.

Mind you, I don't know if that's weird as in "unworthy of the attention of cheese snobs" or weird as in "nuke it from orbit."
posted by nebulawindphone at 3:27 PM on November 28, 2008 [1 favorite]

It's most likely safe but gross. Are you posting from a plane that recently crashed in the Andes? Did you become trapped under a boulder while hiking in the mountains? If so, then I would seriously consider eating this cheese, although I would strongly recommend re-evaluating your Mefi posting priorities.
posted by kprincehouse at 3:47 PM on November 28, 2008 [3 favorites]

If your goal in life is to start a taste-testing kitchen, logging the flavors of various cheeses, at various ages, with various other combinations of odors from leftovers mixed in, then by all means, start with this block of swiss cheese.

Bon apetit!
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 4:01 PM on November 28, 2008

you could always make a nice cheesy quiche or some mac and cheese with it. Heat and botulinum toxin do not get along.

Are you absolutely confident that the food will be evenly and thoroughly heated so as to neutralize the toxin? If not, the risk/reward ratio is too high.

The heat from an oven should kill any worrisome bacteria.

Bacteria are not the concern, but the toxins they've already produced are.

The claim is that a whole wheel of cheese will age nicely for years in a controlled environment, but a shrink-wrapped chunk of it in the fridge will go weird quickly.

That's absolutely correct, and you don't have to be a snob to avoid spoiled cheese.
posted by randomstriker at 4:56 PM on November 28, 2008

Wow, that is an uninspiring hunk of cheese. Throw that out and, if you like swiss cheese, buy a wedge of emmentaler premier cru or gruyere premier cru.
posted by mrmojoflying at 5:50 PM on November 28, 2008

You all do realize that the cheese was already left sitting around for a year before it was ever even packaged right? How do you think cheese is made? Good ones sit in a cave, yes, a cave, for years. Years! In a cave! You think sealed plastic in a fridge is worse than a cave with bugs and mice and bats and shit?

Just eat the thing. Melt it down if you must. You will be fine, really.

Incidentally, the only botulism cases I could find related to cheese were in Georgia from a canned, unrefrdgerated Marscapone and three people in New York in 1914 who ate home made cottage cheese. In fact, the ph of cheeses and certain milk bacteria can kill off botulinum. Cornell University researchers had trouble reproducing the 1914 cottage cheese incident despite high doses of botulinum added to test cheeses.
posted by Pollomacho at 6:12 PM on November 28, 2008

Those darker, "discolored" spots look like whey-off to me. (Whey-off: separation of butterfat from the cheese. Not dangerous.) Are they oily and wipe-off-able at room temperature?

The cheese appears to have been sealed in plastic packaging the entire time it was stored, so it shouldn't have picked up other smells/flavors from the fridge.

Botulism isn't strongly associated with cheese, but I guess it's not unheard of.
posted by Orinda at 8:58 PM on November 28, 2008

If not, is there anything useful I can do with it?

Bait lots and lots of mouse traps?
posted by Orinda at 9:12 PM on November 28, 2008