# Does Cheese ever go bad? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 12, 2014, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cheese-ever-go-bad/707040 "2014-12-12T16:34:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cheese-ever-go-bad/707040/21 "2014-12-13T02:09:29Z")
Sure. They start off all smooth and gentle, but then they start hanging out with a rough crowd - that spoiled brat Milk, or the tough guy Jerky - and next thing you know they’re knocking over Orange Juice bottles or going into egg cartons and beating the poor things till they crack up. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cheese-ever-go-bad/707040/22 "2014-12-13T04:09:00Z")
> [@EdwinAmi](#): > > Cheese lasts VERY long under the right conditions. May be worth noting that cheese originated as an answer to the question “How do we preserve milk in such a way that it’s good to eat months or even years from now?” ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cheese-ever-go-bad/707040/23 "2014-12-13T04:13:19Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > You’ve got to be very select blood kin, or a VERY _special_ friend to be considered for a tasting. 🆒 > > My go-to cheese is a 5 pound block of 5 year old cheddar. I purchase it from the factory, and it gets replaced every couple of months. > > A few other samples of older stuff is saved in the back of the fridge for special occasions. Right now I’m down to some 13 year old stuff and the 30 year old sample. I expect we’ll polish off the last of the 30 year cheese when I and the wife and kids and their spouses are all assembled together this Winter. The Mrs. opened some 12 year old a while back to put on cheeseburgers, because we’d run out of the 5 year old. :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: (was pretty tasty, but NOT how I’d plan to enjoy that particular cheddar.) > > The 6 year old swiss is pretty good too. Tough to find properly aged swiss. The holes are filled with an amber liquid that tastes like the very essence of swiss cheeseness. > > I can lay my hands on 15 year old cheddar anytime without much trouble at the local cheese shop though. > > Damn, now I’m cheese free-associating. And in GQ, too! :o I nominate **QtM** as host of the first annual Straight Dope cheese party. **Mangetout** needs to be there as well. I’ll bring the wine. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cheese-ever-go-bad/707040/24 "2014-12-13T04:48:54Z")
> [@EdwinAmi](#): > > In Mongolia they’ve even got these crazy dried cheeses. They smush them into pucks with Asian characters on them and then dry them like that. They last forever so the mongols can carry them as they graze the plains. Andrew Zimmern tried it on his show, and he said it was VERY strongly flavored. Tibetans have a range of cheeses (Tibet neighbors Mongolia). Most yak but some goat cheeses. Some are kinda like big chunks of cottage cheese that are dried out and hard as a rock. Keeps forever in the high elevation environment. Just plop them in your yak butter tea for a while to soften and then chew with your ground roasted barley. Tasty. I’ve had some fresh mozzarella type yak cheese that was really good. Finally, a soft goat cheese (chevre) only once in a monastery set in a cave on a cliff face a long hike out of the village. Man, was that tasty. I would give a lot to recreate that one. And the barley flat breads were divine. Also some fresh yak butter for the bread. Oh man, making me drool at the 30 year old memory it was that good. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cheese-ever-go-bad/707040/25 "2014-12-13T20:23:19Z")
Something to note is that mold/fungus is not just the part that you can see. It has hyphae (“roots”) that infiltrate the inside of the cheese. Hard cheese is much less likely to be full of the fungus. Either way, what you’re eating may or may not contain fungus, and may or may not be harmful or something to worry about. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cheese-ever-go-bad/707040/26 "2014-12-13T23:57:54Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > (Tibet neighbors Mongolia). :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cheese-ever-go-bad/707040/27 "2014-12-14T01:52:09Z")
28 and 40-year old cheeses: [http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2012/10/08/the-oldest-edible-cheese-in-the-world](http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2012/10/08/the-oldest-edible-cheese-in-the-world) ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cheese-ever-go-bad/707040/28 "2014-12-14T02:53:37Z")
> [@jovan](#): > > :dubious: Welll…not today. Exactly. But it sorta used to [be](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Mongolia). [In](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzungar_Khanate) [a](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khoshut_Khanate#mediaviewer/File:Mongolia_during_the_Manchu_rule.png) [sense](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzungar_Khanate#mediaviewer/File:Mongolia_XVII.png). Basically modern Mongolia is just a tiny northern fragment of previous Mongolias. Inner and Upper Mongolia ( which borders on Tibet ) are now part of China, as is Dzungaria ( Western Mongolia ). Modern Mongolia represents a rump of the old region of Outer Mongolia. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cheese-ever-go-bad/707040/29 "2014-12-14T02:54:49Z")
they both were far bigger. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cheese-ever-go-bad/707040/30 "2014-12-14T16:15:22Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > 28 and 40-year old cheeses: [The oldest (edible) cheese in the world - Chicago Reader](http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2012/10/08/the-oldest-edible-cheese-in-the-world) Yup, that’s where my 28 year old (now aged 30) cheddar came from. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cheese-ever-go-bad/707040/31 "2014-12-14T18:49:50Z")
There’s mold and there’s mold. Over 70 species of Penicillium alone. You pay a lot more for Roquefort, for example, than for moldy cream cheese, and a lot more than that for the fermented juice of moldy grapes. \*Fundamentals of Cheese Science \*(partially searchable here) looks good. I don’t think an injection of _Penicillium roqueforti_ would cure the clap. Nor _Penicillium camamberti._ (Overview from EPA on safety and taxonomy of mold in cheese here from US EPA. Different version, seems more hardcore [heh] here.) ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cheese-ever-go-bad/707040/32 "2014-12-14T20:54:11Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > Does Cheese ever go bad? [Just keep it away from Milk.](http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.comicvine.com%2Fuploads%2Foriginal%2F1%2F15659%2F2774037-milk_cheese_hack_slash_the_series_12_cameo.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comicvine.com%2Fmilk-and-cheese%2F4005-42904%2F&h=834&w=1234&tbnid=M4236o3KUZhZNM%3A&zoom=1&docid=ZEEPrk2yINMHjM&ei=xviNVODyE9DnoASsqYGoCQ&tbm=isch&ved=0CCYQMygBMAE&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=541&page=1&start=0&ndsp=39) ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2014, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cheese-ever-go-bad/707040/33 "2014-12-17T00:47:14Z")
A friend of mine once gave me a big brick.of pepper jack cheese, a favorite of mine…in June. I enjoyed the cheese, but I couldn’t eat it fast enough before it went bad. Totally inedible. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2014, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cheese-ever-go-bad/707040/34 "2014-12-17T03:33:09Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Welll…not today. Exactly. But it sorta used to [be](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Mongolia). [In](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzungar_Khanate) [a](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khoshut_Khanate#mediaviewer/File:Mongolia_during_the_Manchu_rule.png) [sense](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzungar_Khanate#mediaviewer/File:Mongolia_XVII.png). > > Basically modern Mongolia is just a tiny northern fragment of previous Mongolias. Inner and Upper Mongolia ( which borders on Tibet ) are now part of China, as is Dzungaria ( Western Mongolia ). Modern Mongolia represents a rump of the old region of Outer Mongolia. I assume you’re not considering Tibet province, correct? The traditional Tibet of less than 70 years ago includes what is now the Province of Tibet, Qinghai, big chunks of Northern and Western Sichuan, Gansu, Yunnan and possibly a bit of Xinjiang. Today Qinghai (which is Tibetan for all intents and purposes) borders Gansu and is only about 50 miles to Inner Mongolia. There have been Tibetans and Mongolians living as contiguous neighbors of some sort for most of recorded history. I didn’t actually do that route but I’m 99% sure you can find ethnic Tibetans and Mongolians as contiguous neighbors today. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2014, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cheese-ever-go-bad/707040/35 "2014-12-19T04:37:05Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > I can lay my hands on 15 year old cheddar anytime without much trouble at the local cheese shop though. That’s a relief. You wouldn’t want to have to shoot someone. What a senseless waste of human life. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cheese-ever-go-bad/707040.md?page=1)