Unintended cheese aging

Every year, my wife's folks send us a 5-pound block of 5 year old cheddar from Gibbsville Cheeses in Wisconsin. This is really fine stuff, with a lot of flavor and a crumbly texture. For some reason, they sent us two blocks last year. We went through one of them, but the other ended up sitting in the back of the fridge, to be routinely noticed during cleanings and then forgotten about. When we received this year's block of cheese (fortunately, just one) we figured we'd best unwrap last year's and either start eating or throw it away. Turns out that the year in our fridge was quite salutory - it went from really good to world-class. Along with the strong cheddar flavor, it's developed a hint of a musky character. There's much complexity and great length of flavor. There's a tiny bit of a white mold on a couple of the surfaces, but that's the only "flaw". It's as good or better than any cheddar I've had.

We'll see if this year's cheese develops as well as that one.


Mike

Mike, I am so jealous of you and your cheese. I posted somewhere here that I used to have a young meteorologist working in the same office as I who was from Wisconsin. When he went home, he always brought me a hunk of 3 year old cheddar back. I have been retired now for more than 10 years, and I still miss that cheese. Oh and BTW, that little bit of white mold won't hurt you one bit. It might even help!

It's funny, Bob. When we go to visit in Wisconsin, it seems that the majority of the cheese we see is flavored with "port wine", cut into the shapes of stockings and such, and covered with red and green wax. But when you find the good stuff, it's really good.



Mike

One of my dairy customers once sent me two rounds of cheese, one provolone and one cheddar ... both from Wisconsin. They were much too fresh to eat so I stuck them into my speckled turkey roaster, covered them up, and left them on the wet bar for about six months. Curious visitors would lift the lid and lived to regret the aromas which filled the air. I managed to gnaw on those cheeses for about a year. Absolutely delicious ... even if the provolone became slightly reminscent of pile of dirty sweat socks left to ripen in the laundry basket at the Y.