I’ve noticed this common thread between warranties (on anything) and cheese. You take your DVD player/VCR/television/car home, and it works great. Ten days after the warranty period passes, it breaks in such a way that it would cost double the price of buying a new one (how can that be?).
Cheese: They age the stuff 2, 3, 4, and even 5 years, and it’s fine. I take it home and put it in my fridge, two weeks later it is unsalvagably permeated with mold, and I suspect not the kind that is supposed to come in some cheeses. Four years they have the stuff and it’s fine, I buy it and it breaks.
I think that the same people that have figured out how to offer a warranty that last just a bit shy of the an objects useful life are the people that design cheese’s shelf life.
And while I’m nowhere near the topic, anyone else think old people look funny in jeans? I mean, you see men (and even women, who look even funnier) seventy years old in a pair of jeans walking down the street. It just doesn’t look right. To me, that has about the same weirdness factor as seeing one of the elderly with an eyebrow ring. I think anyone over 60 is supposed to wear pants that could be described as “trousers”. Jeans are most definitely not trousers. They can wear whatever they want, of course, but that doesn’t change the fact that they look funny in jeans.
Are you spending $10.[sup]00[/sup] or $20.[sup]00[/sup] a pound on your cheese? If not, then what you’re buying is maybe all of 2, 3, 4 and even 5weeks old. Your sharp Cheddar might have a couple of months on it if you’re lucky. A fine 5 year old Cheddar is easily going to cost you around $12.[sup]00[/sup] per pound.
Now consider that you’re talking about cheese that is a couple of weeks old which goes off in a couple of weeks and suddenly, everything is in perspective. Some tips:
DON’T handle the block of cheese with your bare hands.
DON’T lay the block down on your regular cutting board.
DON’T slice it with a knife used for anything else.
DON’T leave unwrapped cheese out in the open for very long.
DON’T store cheese in a wrapper used for anything else.
All of the above actions prevent introduction of foreign mold spores that can invade the specific culture you have bought. If you would like to test this, purchase two regular blocks of identical cheese and begin to use one in your ordinary fashion. Keep the other one unopened in your refrigerator. By the time your opened cheese has headed south for the winter, you’ll notice the unopened one still has its bright and sunny disposition.
I recommend that you buy a nice block of Cheddar or Jack cheese and age it for an additional couple of months. You’ll be astonished by the increase in flavor a little extra aging can produce. Merely inspect the cheese periodically and at the first hint of mold, pare off the offending culture and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
As to your consumer electronics, welcome to the world of precisely calculated MTBF*.
Interesting, seeing that comment from someone in Alberta. (Not bad, just amusing, to me.) A lo-o-o-o-o-ong time ago on a family vacation that passed through Banff, Jasper, Lake Louise and that region, my sister commented on how she saw so many “old” people. My mom looked around and said that she didn’t see any more old people than usual. Later in the day, my mom said, “I’ve figured out why you think there are more old people, here. They dress old. Down in Glacier Park, we were meeting people long past retirement hiking up the mountain trails in jeans and sneakers and hiking boots. Here we are seeing more people who are ‘dressing up’ and they look older.”
(I draw no conclusions regarding apparel in the U.S. or Canada, either in the early 60s or currently, but I find a remark disdaining “young clothes” on “old” people emanating from Alberta amusing.)
Cheese: I used to work in a mycology lab. Believe it or not, there are some fungi that can be a worse problem in a home refrigerator than in a clean cellar or “cheese case”. Refrigerators are not just cold. They are cold and usually VERY humid (for the temperature). All manner of materials are stored in these boxes, and they are not cleaned on a commercial schedule, for the most part. If you ever took out all the shelves and drawers in your fridge and got under it to look at the drip pan, you might get a shock. Be sure to have spare “biohazard” stickers around.
There are many “cleaning” practices that would be considered textbook cross-contamination hazards in a laboratory or a food service facility. The worst is the “dishcloth”. Any solution capable of sterilizing a piece of cloth would not be safe to put your hands into. Thus, when you wipe something off, that cloth is contaminated. It doesn’t matter if you rinse it out well. Washing in a clothes washer and drying in a dryer will get rid of most of the nasties, though.
Likewise, the dust load of a clean kitchen can be marvelous to behold. Remember, many fungal spores are microscopic or so small as to be difficult to see without a lens. Most fungal food contaminants have dry spores, which means they can float and are viable for years.
Cheese likes cool and dry. It’s the dry that keeps many fungi down as much as the cool.
That being said, Zenster’s advice is pretty good. I suggest, if possible, getting cheese in smaller amounts and not storing it long at home.
As for old people in jeans. My grandfather was a small-engine repairman and an avid fisherman. I can only remember him in jeans.