View Full Version : Shelf life of cheddar cheese
Tennessee Viking
03-01-2010, 21:35
I have some vacuum packed smoked cheddar cheese from last year. Doesn't have a expiration date. Never opened. Whats the expected shelf life of it? I found some websites say 1-2 months, 3-6 months, and even a year.
Depends on how it was packed and how it was stored. If stored in a cheese cave or warehouse, and without killing the culture, it just gets better and better for a decade or more. Different character, more bite and flavor. However, after being packed for retail, as yours sounds like, it can deteriorate some. The worst is if it is stored in a warm place. The oil, which is just butter aged in a cheesy sort of way, tends to ooze out of the cheese, which some find objectionable. However, it probably won't go bad very fast. Bad may mean drying out, may be crusted with white or blue cultures. Again, whether you find this objectionable is a personal thing. Cheese really doesn't become poisonous. It just changes its character as it ages. Cheddar is a semi-hard cheese which originated as a way to make a lunch for peasants who work all day in the fields. Excess milk would be curded and drained of most of its moisture, and then formed into rounds with cheese cloth wrapping, and then after a time coated in wax. These rounds could be very large, or just enough for a few meals. The waxed round were stored in a cellar for anything from a few months to several years. The only real danger of loss occurred when the wax seal failed. A certain number of cheeses would be sold off during aging if they were found to be defective. Modern cheddar is much the same, but it is cut up for marketing and then resealed in plastic. So these cheeses can go off by various means after this process. However... most cheddar and cheddar like (firm) cheese will be edible for a long time, if stored cool, or even frozen until time to eat. In a pack, it will certainly last long enough to eat the whole thing. It may ooze a little bit, but this will not be fatal, either to the cheese ot to you. Just be a little bit careful not to ooze cheese oil all over your food bag. Keep it zipped and double bagged during the summer, after the wrapper is opened. Then use it up by eating it with everything!
Appalachian Tater
03-01-2010, 22:48
Hard cheeses don't really go bad they just get unappetizing then dry up. If it looks and smells okay after you cut the mold off, it's fine. Since yours is vacuum packed it should be good for years unless stored in warm temperatures.
Tennessee Viking
03-01-2010, 22:59
Hard cheeses don't really go bad they just get unappetizing then dry up. If it looks and smells okay after you cut the mold off, it's fine. Since yours is vacuum packed it should be good for years unless stored in warm temperatures.Its been the fridge since I bought it. No wax coating in heavy vacuumed plastic.
Appalachian Tater
03-01-2010, 23:16
Its been the fridge since I bought it. No wax coating in heavy vacuumed plastic.If it's in the fridge it's fine, even if it weren't in plastic!!! I have eaten cheddar aged five years but you can get it much older. (Won't age vacuum packed, though.) But go ahead and eat it now so you don't have to worry about it later. NO problem at all.
It was pointed out to me once that we frequently leave butter out on the counter for extended periods of time without incident. I felt better about eating warm slimy cheese after that. I suspect that harder cheese will survive better than the soft stuff.
I think you got your answer Tennessee. But just in case your are not going to eat it. Store it and I'll drop in in my food bag next time I'm through Cary.
Toolshed
03-02-2010, 00:16
Last year after christmas, there was a big sale at a mail order cheese outlet in wisconsin at 90% off. I bought over $100 worth including a number of smoked chedders - I stored the packages unopened in the cool basement they are still good - great texture, great taste. WE just had some2 weeks ago and it was fine.. I say go for it!!!
Wise Old Owl
03-02-2010, 00:19
Ok do not cut off the mold, box it up and mail it to me - I am not proud.... I will eat it... I might keep it another six months... enjoy...
MuffinMan11
03-12-2010, 00:18
Hmm reading some of these posts reminded me of one of those "We where drinking stories" A friend of mine goes to the fridge while we where at a friends lake house and pulls out a slice of nice frosted cake. Nobody has been there in weeks. Claims the cake tastes funny. Needless to say it was a wedge of cheese left in the fridge with a perfect layer of white mold all over it. :D He didnt get sick from it so it must be ok to eat the mold lol
Was it sold as cheese outside of the fridge? If so then it is shelf stable.
But hey, you kept it cold. It is fine then.
This past year I was sent a thank you gift from Tillamook Cheese of a massive wheel of their super sharp white cheddar cheese - that was celebrating their 100th anniversary. They had aged the cheese for at least a year before. And the expire was like another year or two beyond that (and that was a suggested eat before date).
Hard cheese if stored right doesn't go bad in traditional sense though the flavor can alter. Its real enemy though is people touching it. So if wrapped in plastic or wax it is fine.
He didnt get sick from it so it must be ok to eat the mold lol
Bear in mind that most cheese is a bacterial/mold culture. There are a few pathogenic bacteria that can grow in cheese or milk, (listeria, tuberculosis, etc.) but cheese made in NA is mostly made from pasteurized milk, and these infections are extremely rare. Many specialty cheeses, like all blue cheese and many runny/smelly cheeses are living cultures, like yogurt. They definitely change as they age, but it is just the culture running through its life cycle. Sometimes for aesthetics the rind or bloom is not usually eaten, but it is very rarely inedible. The bloom that your friend ate on the cheese in the fridge was probably related to one of these cheese making cultures and harmless. Cheese is a very old food, and most of the varieties got the way they did because of just this sort of storage fault. People didn't waste food, so someone tried it and liked it, and began making their cheese that way.
The idea that cheese should be shelf stable and rind free is very recent. Go to a European ethnic food store and check out their cheeses and sausages: The white stuff on the outside is normal bacterial culture. That's what all such food looked like until very recently. Stop worrying and enjoy!
Jester2000
03-12-2010, 15:44
Forever, baby, forever. However, the fact that you've had cheese that long without eating it may mean that you don't deserve that cheese. Mail it to me. I'll get rid of it quickly.
Blissful
03-12-2010, 20:11
They sell cheddar aged for four years. No reason it wouldn't be good.
JustaTouron
03-12-2010, 20:23
Open it and apply the smell test....
"the nose knows"
vonfrick
03-12-2010, 20:30
screw the smell test...eat it, the only way to know for sure