When You Can’t Eat Stinky Cheese
Most of the best cheeses have their own smell, but this makes it difficult to tell if they have gone bad or not. The trick lies in the type of smell they give off.
Cheese may remain edible for a long time, but nothing lasts forever. They can start to rot like everything else. But how do you know if it’s bad if it already stinks? Sue Conley and Peggy Smith of Food52 suggest looking at a special scent:
The first sign of pasta cheese after prime is the smell of ammonia, and the second is crust breakdown resulting in multi-colored tufts of mold combined with paste discoloration. Each type of stinky cheese has its own expiration date, but the smell of ammonia and rotting rind are universal signs of spoiled cheese.
If the smell is good but mold is visible, it is not necessarily inedible . However, if the cheese smells like cleaning agent or (ahem) urine, it’s time to throw it away. Enjoy smelly cheese, but make sure you get the scent you want.