Out of Date Cheddar Cheese...

Fitzio

Hi,

I want to make a cheese sauce to go with cauliflower for dinner tonight. I have some medium cheddar which I could use, but I normally use mature cheddar as you don't have to use as much for the flavour etc. I have found some mature cheddar lurking in my fridge with a use by date of 5th December.

Would you use the OOD mature stuff or play it safe and use the medium stuff? I wouldn't have a problem if it was a few days out of date, but I am not sure as it's over a month!

Thanks,
Lynn

PasturesNew

I'd absolutely use the OOD stuff. Just cut off any green bits (if there are any), rest's good to go... even if it's got hard/shiny/darker edges, it all melts up the same.

y5d

Use it. If it is mouldy then cut the mould off first. Snap!

Magpye

Give it a nibble, cut it open and check for mould. If it tastes rank, then bin it. If it tastes ok, cut off any mould and use it. I'll be honest and say I never pay any attention to use by dates on cheese; you can usually tell if it's gone funny.

Fitzio

Thanks - I can't see any mould on it which is why I didn't just want to throw it away. Will give it a try. Cheers!

Burlesque_Babe

Cut the bits off, not a problem. When I was a teenager in the 80s, I worked on a cheese stall on a market for a few years and stuff like cheddar came in 30 pound boxes. Big chunks were whizzed off with a wire and the rest stuck back in the fridge (well, on the floor during the day!) and it was fine for ages. Any bits of blue that appeared were just cut off.

The_Mighty_Gusset

Have you ever seen whole cheeses in the dairy ?
They are covered in mould.
Just cut it off - the rest of the cheese is absolutely fine.
The only exception is if you are using unpasteurised cheese and it has maggots crawling around in it - I usually bin that !

Red_Cat

If you make the sauce hot, I expect you will kill off any bacteria anyway, so chopping off any mould will make sure it tastes OK.

conradmum

As I understand it, cheese is already 'off' in a sense. I would absolutely use it, just cutting off any mould. If it were blue cheese, you would be eating the mould too. :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

Yup a bit of 'fur' won't kill you we also scraped the 'furry' bits off cheese and jam as a children over 60 years ago and I'm still alive and kicking

charliee_3

i am sure it will be fine if its been well wrapped up.. first cut off any mank bits (slimy/ green/ really dry) then give it a sniff and taste to make sure it hasnt gone 'mousetrappy' (thats what we call in in our house) as it will taint your food.. but other than that its fine. i used to work in a cheese shop and to maintain the big cheeses you unwrapped the clingfilm, shaved off the dodgy bits and rewrapped really tightly in fresh clingfilm.