Don’t Touch the Cheese
Posted by terrepruitt on January 7, 2012
A while back I did a post about rules of the house. Ha, as I was typing this I just thought of another one. My hubby is not allowed to talk to me when I am doing my Nia bars. If he sees me with my ear buds in and paper in front of me with lines on it he knows I am listening to my Nia music and not to talk to me. Sometimes there are songs that are just not that easy for me to count and when he interrupts me I have to start over. So we have reached an agreement there. Anyway, back to my other post, in that I mentioned not touching the cheese. One of my friends commented that she was going to come out here and she promised not to touch my cheese. I was actually waiting for her to come out here to post this, but that scheduled trip got cancelled and I still feel the need to explain. Her comment had me thinking that she thought I won’t SHARE my cheese. But that is not it at all. If I have a good cheese I will gladly share it with a fellow cheese lover because everything taste better when you share it. I actually mean don’t TOUCH the cheese.
One reason I have been putting off writing this post is I like to post pictures with my posts. So I was going to take pictures of what I am about to explain, but I really didn’t want to waste the cheese. I could not — every time since then that I have had a hunk of cheese, I could not bring myself to touch it! Cheese is made from curdled milk. In some cases they use bacteria to make the cheese. Cheese contains living organisms. With all these facts that make up cheese most cheese tend to mold quite easily and quickly.
It is my experience that the mold begins to grow where the cheese is touched. Go ahead, see for yourself. As I said, I will not sacrifice my cheese to show you pictures of this type of experiment. I know it to be true. Even though you wash your hands before you touch the cheese, you still have bacteria and things on your hand that apparently help the mold grow. Again, this is just what I have experienced. I have found that if the cheese is touched that is where the mold grows. I have found that if the BAG or wrapper in which the cheese is stored is touched and that area touches the cheese that is where the mold grows.
Of course, if cheese is old enough it starts to grow mold on its own, but wherever it is touched it grows faster. Have you experienced this to be true? I have, so that is why there is a “rule” in our house that the cheese cannot be touched. That includes ALL cheese in all forms. You cannot put your hand in a bag of shredded cheese. You can pour a small amount into a bowl (or whatever) and handle it from there using what you want, but hopefully you will end up using all of it. If not, it gets put in a separate bag or container it does not go back in the bag with the rest of the cheese. Tubs of cheese . . . . same thing. Even cream and ricotta, you can’t use a utensil then “double-dip” if the utensil has touched hands or mouth. Mouth is probably even worse than hands touching the cheese.
So, that is the reason for the “Don’t Touch the Cheese” rule in our house. It has nothing to do with sharing. We will gladly share our cheese with you, just don’t HANDLE it!
Are you willing to experiment? Use two pieces of cheese to see if the one you touch goes bad before the one you don’t touch? Let us know? Remember you have to have cheese around your house long enough for this to even happen. Ha, ha! (I know how some of you cheese lovers are!)
This entry was posted on January 7, 2012 at 7:57 pm and is filed under Food. Tagged: all types of cheese, Cheese, cheese lover, Nia, Nia bars, Nia Music, rules of the house, shredded cheese. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
20 Responses to “Don’t Touch the Cheese”
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Terre Pruitt's Blog 
Sergio said
Reblogged this on What Color is Your Cheese?.
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terrepruitt said
I think it is nice that you “reblogged” my post, but I believe that it would have been even nicer and felt less disbturbing if you would have asked first. Thank you.
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Michele said
Hi! I think our house falls into the catagory of not being able to keep cheese around long enough for it to mold!! I think we have talked about this before and although it is not a rule of the house, I still try to keep touching the cheese to a minimum, it makes sense what you say! xoxoxoxo
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terrepruitt said
Sometimes when John goes to Costco he will buy like three chunks of cheese. And you know Costco, so they are HUGE chunks and it can take us a bit to get through them.
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Jill Campana said
Omg omg omg…I am laughing so hard…even though I’m amazed at what you say about cheese molding where it is touched. I love cheese. I’m not sure I want to use my cheese to find out though. I just love you so.
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terrepruitt said
I love cheese too, so I decided not to use my cheese to show it! 🙂
I am glad you got a laugh. Laughing is good for you! Love you too!
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Mike said
I didn’t know the facts on touching cheese but of course I love it so much that even if I manhandle an entire block of cheese, it won’t be around long enough TO grow mold. Still – I’ll have to try your experiment simply out of curiosity.
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terrepruitt said
Yeah, try it and let us know.
I do think that some people don’t have cheese around long enough to see. I know we don’t have it around long enough very often. But sometimes my hubby goes to a warehouse store and buys a lot!
Check back in when you are done with your experiment!
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Dwight Burke said
Terre,you crack me up! The title hooked me. This was “FOOD” for thought! Dwight
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terrepruitt said
Hi Dwight. You crack me up to. Funny man! Thanks for reading and commenting.
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pegbur7 said
Dwight forgot to mention that cheese never stays around our house long enough to grow mold. Our son in law says our family (including his wife) are the biggest cheese eaters he ever met, especially since we tend to be lactose intolerant it really does stump him!
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terrepruitt said
Yeah, cheese is yummy. And it does have to be around long enough for you to see the mold/bacteria grow where it has been touched. 🙂
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Jane said
Wow. I am a cheese-lover but I didn’t know about this one. I’ll surely experiment on this one myself and get back to you for some feedback. Thanks for sharing!
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terrepruitt said
Jane – A lot of self-proclaimed cheese lovers have said the same thing. Maybe everyone eats the cheese so fast it doesn’t have a chance to grow? Or maybe y’all never touch it in the first place. I just know that the first place cheese starts going bad around here is where it has been touched to it is forbidden! No touching the cheese! 🙂
Do experiment and let us know!
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Mike said
I told her I was going; to do the experiment. I cut off a small square, touched it all over and left it – for maybe a day. Then I ate it. It just won’t last long enough. I guess I’d never be a good food researcher.
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terrepruitt said
Try touching a place on the hunk. JUST one spot will do. Then maybe if it takes you a week or so to eat the hunk then you will see the one spot you touched is molding?
And, yes, sorry to agree, but you would not be a good food researcher if part of the research was to NOT eat the cheese!
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Becky Sain said
Ha! You do realize that cheese, by nature, is a mold? 🙂
I’m determined to make that trip regardless of all barriers in my path!
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terrepruitt said
Yes. That is why when you touch it is molds easier/faster.
Can’t wait to see you!
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Frank Hutchinson said
Thank you so much for that. I just had friends over for Labor Day weekend. And one started to put his hand in the bag of cheese and I asked him to let me pour it instead of sticking your hand in the bag. Great advice thank you
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terrepruitt said
I believe it helps the cheese last longer! 🙂
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