34 Month Old Smoked Cheddar

[redheelerdog]

I smoked this cheddar from Sam's Club (Daily Chef brand) back on February 15th, 2016

Here is the post: https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/pepper-jack-and-sharp-cheddar-w-qview.242455/#post-1527444

Here is what it looks like after vacuum packing and aging for 2 yrs and 10 months:
A little whey and friendly mold (this package did not seal tight to the form of the block)

Here is what it looks like after a little scrape job with a knife

And, cut in half

And BOOM! This stuff slaps you upside the head with a dry sharp, sharp, smokey, smokey sharp taste that is hard to describe. I really love it, I mean REALLY love it. I wish I would of made 100lbs. back then. Really good, and probably an acquired taste, that I have come to love.

I have quite a bit more in my garage fridge... aging. LOL

 

[fivetricks]

Drool....

 

[zwiller]

Does the sealed bag get kinda loose over time? Worried my seal is not good but the cheese is looking like yours. Extra sharp about 18mos.

 

[redheelerdog]

Not quite sure, I think it depends on how good the original seal is.

I have a bunch of these in the bottom of my garage fridge, and to tell you the truth they look less than appealing. I have some that tons of whey have came out into the vac bag, (still a solid vac seal) but does not look appealing at all. (Think of the cheese vacuum packed in a quarter stick of liquid butter), but still cold in the fridge.

It actually ran through my head to pitch the one in the pics above in the trash. Sure glad I did not. They clean up nice with a knife and what is underneath is awesomeness. I think yours are fine.

Crack one open and see how it tastes!

 

[zwiller]

Sounds EXACTLY like mine. No whey that I can see yet but almost chucked them already. Glad I didn't! THANKS

 

[oddegan]

Looks amazing. Not sure I would have the patience to wait.

 

[zwiller]

I am the same way but learned from homebrewing... It's actually easy. Just keep smoking more and more and adding to the stash and next thing you know there's some a few years old. Heck, I've no idea what exactly is laying in the bottom of the fridge...

 

[oddegan]

I did do that with the brewing as well. The beer got all drunk up but I somehow ended up with around 200 bottles of wine in the cellar.

 

[SmokinVOLfan]

Looks great! I’ve had some aging for a year think I might let it go another! Thanks for the post good info

 

[bbqbrett]

Wow, not sure if I have the patience. One of these days I am going to just have to keep myself in check from eating the cheese and let it keep going. Right now the longest I have made was about 10 months.

 

[TomKnollRFV]

The urge to hide cheese from my self is strong still....

 

[gmc2003]

That cheese look great, I'm not sure I could hold out that long.

Chris

 

[zwiller]

I did do that with the brewing as well. The beer got all drunk up but I somehow ended up with around 200 bottles of wine in the cellar.

You basically have figured it out yourself... I exchanged PMs with a pro belgian brewer and he said to go back to bottling as it will "keep you out of the beer". Kegging makes it too easy to rip through it all. Get a few cases in champagne bottles and bottle some, you will keep it longer, like wine.

Not sure if you guys ever tried it but just ran some beech and I think it would really pair well with cheddar. Very "olde english" to me.