Wisconsin Cheese Shop Owner Finds Some Very Aged Cheddar

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Aug 31, 2012 4:45PM

We were cleaning out or refrigerator a few months back when we re-discovered a pound of unpasteurized white truffle cheddar cheese a friend bought while in Amsterdam in 2002, the wrap and rind untouched. We thought, “What the fuck?“ and broke out some snack crackers.

Surprisingly, the cheese was still good.

A 10-year-old block of cheese pales in comparison, however, to the recent discovery of some aged cheddar in a Wisconsin cheese shop, some of it dating back to the watergate break-in. Edward Zahn of Z’s Cheese Shop in Oconto discovered the boxes of 28-, 34- and 40-year-old cheddar in his walk-in cooler. Zahn told the Wisconsin State Journal:

"It just got overlooked," Zahn said. "It looks just like the others except it's just a lot sharper. It's got character."

The cheeses will be part of a tasting Oct. 6 at Wisconsin Cheese Mart in Milwaukee. Owner Ken McNulty told the State Journal he has 120 pounds of the 34-year-old cheddar and 40 pounds of the 40-year cheddar but isn’t selling it by the pound. It will be sold by the ounce and paired with red wine, porter, port, and some very old aged whiskey. Experts say it's the oldest collection of cheese ever made available to the public.

"It's the sharpest cheese I've ever tasted," McNulty said. "Although what you'd expect is that it would be really dry but it's actually very creamy."