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Sheldon

wrote:
>
> once you have broken the seal on a packet of cheese, it generally goes
> off in a few weeks, whereas butter will last months (maybe a year) in
> the fridge before it's inedible. but they're both made of basically the
> same thing. how does this work?

They're not made of the same thing.

Because cheese consists of about half milk solids it is a much better
host for bacteria than butter which consists of mostly fat and some
water... milk actually has particular bacteria introduced which causes
it to become a particular cheese, whereas it's also very susceptible to
contamination from contact with other bacteria.

> also, milk lasts even less long than either butter or cheese - how
> come?

If milk had the same salt content of cheeses it would be as stable if
not more so, especially pasteurized milk.. in fact there is milk that
is super pasteurized and remains fresh many months and without
refrigeration.

I've never had butter last more than a couple-three months in the
fridge before it began to go rancid (I use non-salted)... salted butter
will remain stable a bit longer but I seriously doubt a year, unless
frozen. Perhaps there's somthing amiss about your taster.

Btw, fat in of itself can make a pretty good food preservative (as for
confit), the purer the fat the better (as in ghee).

Didja ever wonder why most all cheeses are of European origin, that's
because they learned early on about bacteria, they don't bathe... a lot
of European cheeses are made by innoculating milk with crotch crud...
the mild cheeses (like brie) from milking maidens... strongly scented
hard dago cheese made at the hands of haggard old smegma fingered
whores. I ain't even gonna say how your stiff upper lips developed
Queen's Crotch Cheddar. LOL

Sheldon