Hi all. We went on vacation and left a covered butter dish with a full
stick of butter for a month. When we returned, it was covered with
many different colored molds, but as man is wont to do, I smelled it,
and it smelled like excellent gorgonzola. I put it in a dish in the
fridge, because I am curious -- is it safe to taste and maybe to eat?
If it tastes as good as it smells, and is safe, then why not? Isn't it
just extremely fatty cheese?

Tartarus

Monsignor Tartarus Sanctus wrote:
> Hi all. We went on vacation and left a covered butter dish with a full
> stick of butter for a month. When we returned, it was covered with
> many different colored molds, but as man is wont to do, I smelled it,
> and it smelled like excellent gorgonzola. I put it in a dish in the
> fridge, because I am curious -- is it safe to taste and maybe to eat?
> If it tastes as good as it smells, and is safe, then why not? Isn't it
> just extremely fatty cheese?
>
> Tartarus

Dunno.

How good is your health ins.?

Personally, good health ins. given, I wouldn't becaue I'd rather be hit
by a bus than throw up.

Kathleen wrote:
>
> Monsignor Tartarus Sanctus wrote:
> > Hi all. We went on vacation and left a covered butter dish with a full
> > stick of butter for a month. When we returned, it was covered with
> > many different colored molds, but as man is wont to do, I smelled it,
> > and it smelled like excellent gorgonzola. I put it in a dish in the
> > fridge, because I am curious -- is it safe to taste and maybe to eat?
> > If it tastes as good as it smells, and is safe, then why not? Isn't it
> > just extremely fatty cheese?
>
> Dunno.
>
> How good is your health ins.?
>
> Personally, good health ins. given, I wouldn't becaue I'd rather be hit
> by a bus than throw up.

We don't know how much money he has. It might
be worth a gamble on a day of sickness to rescue
$0.50 of butter. Not for me, of course, but
maybe for him the tradeoff makes sense.

On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:34:08 -0700 (PDT), Monsignor Tartarus Sanctus
> wrote:

>Hi all. We went on vacation and left a covered butter dish with a full
>stick of butter for a month. When we returned, it was covered with
>many different colored molds, but as man is wont to do, I smelled it,
>and it smelled like excellent gorgonzola. I put it in a dish in the
>fridge, because I am curious -- is it safe to taste and maybe to eat?
>If it tastes as good as it smells, and is safe, then why not? Isn't it
>just extremely fatty cheese?
>

1. Butter gets moldy?
2. If it did, throw it out. Costs just a few pennies to replace.
3. Or don't. God be with you.


--
I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number of carats in a diamond.

Mae West

On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:29:27 -0700, Mark Thorson >
wrote:

>We don't know how much money he has. It might
>be worth a gamble on a day of sickness to rescue
>$0.50 of butter. Not for me, of course, but
>maybe for him the tradeoff makes sense.

He just wants to get on the fast track to St. Pete and the Pearly
Gates.


--
I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number of carats in a diamond.

Mae West

On Jun 24, 11:48 pm, sf <.> wrote:
> On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:34:08 -0700 (PDT), Monsignor Tartarus Sanctus
>
> > wrote:
> >Hi all. We went on vacation and left a covered butter dish with a full
> >stick of butter for a month. When we returned, it was covered with
> >many different colored molds, but as man is wont to do, I smelled it,
> >and it smelled like excellent gorgonzola. I put it in a dish in the
> >fridge, because I am curious -- is it safe to taste and maybe to eat?
> >If it tastes as good as it smells, and is safe, then why not? Isn't it
> >just extremely fatty cheese?
>
> 1. Butter gets moldy?
> 2. If it did, throw it out. Costs just a few pennies to replace.
> 3. Or don't. God be with you.

I'm just curious. This is how people discovered cheese. It really does
smell like fine gorgonzola. The only question is this -- are there
dangerous molds that can infect butter, or are they generally safe?
People (even well known TV chefs) eat all kinds of rotten food. I
don't have a problem eating anything other cultures eat and don't get
sick from.

Tartarus

Monsignor Tartarus Sanctus wrote:
>
> I'm just curious. This is how people discovered cheese. It really does
> smell like fine gorgonzola. The only question is this -- are there
> dangerous molds that can infect butter, or are they generally safe?
> People (even well known TV chefs) eat all kinds of rotten food. I
> don't have a problem eating anything other cultures eat and don't get
> sick from.

Sounds good! I'm willing to risk your life on it!

On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:34:08 -0700 (PDT), Monsignor Tartarus Sanctus
> wrote:

> is it safe to taste and maybe to eat?

Try it....report back.....If you can.

Abe wrote:
>
> You'd have to ask a real live cheese monger at a real cheese shop,
> preferable with the item in question well sealed, and in-hand. Nobody
> here can give you an authoritative answer.


Don't bring moldy anything into a cheese shop. Some molds are airborne
and can contaminate good cheeses. I wouldn't even bring it in a sealed
container (though that's a help). I'd guess that even an expert cheese
monger wouldn't be able to tell a safe cheese from an unsafe one on the
basis of look and smell alone.


For the original poster-- The lay science behind your question is this.
It is true that cheese is milk or butter that has been transformed by
a mold into something tasty and healthy, BUT there are vast differences
in types of molds. The cheese that you buy in a store is made under
especially sanitary conditions. That's true whether it's a large
factory cheese or an artisinal one. The part they don't show you on
television shows on cheese is how carefully everyone who enters the
cheesemaking areas has to scrub-- even if they're just observing.


Great care is taken to innoculate the cheese with the right mold or
bacteria and to protect it from stray ones. Stray ones from the air can
give the cheese an off taste (which is subjective) or can make it
dangerous to eat. Just saying that the butter smells like gorgonzola
isn't enough to say that the mold is the same as the one that makes
gorgonzola. Expert cheese makers use microscopes, other scientific
equipment, and years of study to determine the differences in those
microscopic organisms.


--Lia

Mark Thorson wrote:
> Monsignor Tartarus Sanctus wrote:
>>
>> I'm just curious. This is how people discovered cheese. It really
>> does smell like fine gorgonzola. The only question is this -- are
>> there dangerous molds that can infect butter, or are they generally
>> safe? People (even well known TV chefs) eat all kinds of rotten
>> food. I don't have a problem eating anything other cultures eat and
>> don't get sick from.
>
> Sounds good! I'm willing to risk your life on it!


Anyone else smell a moldy troll?

Jill

Monsignor wrote on Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:34:08 -0700 (PDT):

> Hi all. We went on vacation and left a covered butter dish
> with a full stick of butter for a month. When we returned, it
> was covered with many different colored molds, but as man is
> wont to do, I smelled it, and it smelled like excellent
> gorgonzola. I put it in a dish in the fridge, because I am
> curious -- is it safe to taste and maybe to eat? If it tastes
> as good as it smells, and is safe, then why not? Isn't it just
> extremely fatty cheese?

> Tartarus

I don't eat anything with mold on it! Chuck it; it can't be valuable
enough to risk. Well, cheese perhaps but only if it looks like the stuff
that was there when I bought the cheese.

--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

"sf" <.> wrote in message news
> On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:34:08 -0700 (PDT), Monsignor Tartarus Sanctus
> > wrote:
>
>>Hi all. We went on vacation and left a covered butter dish with a full
>>stick of butter for a month. When we returned, it was covered with
>>many different colored molds, but as man is wont to do, I smelled it,
>>and it smelled like excellent gorgonzola. I put it in a dish in the
>>fridge, because I am curious -- is it safe to taste and maybe to eat?
>>If it tastes as good as it smells, and is safe, then why not? Isn't it
>>just extremely fatty cheese?
>>
>
> 1. Butter gets moldy?
> 2. If it did, throw it out. Costs just a few pennies to replace.
> 3. Or don't. God be with you.
>
>

I had Land O' Lakes butter mold so many times I quit buying that brand. I
never tried eating it though, I just tossed it.

Ms P

On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:32:06 -0700 (PDT), Monsignor Tartarus Sanctus
> wrote:

>On Jun 24, 11:48 pm, sf <.> wrote:
>> On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:34:08 -0700 (PDT), Monsignor Tartarus Sanctus
>>
>> > wrote:
>> >Hi all. We went on vacation and left a covered butter dish with a full
>> >stick of butter for a month. When we returned, it was covered with
>> >many different colored molds, but as man is wont to do, I smelled it,
>> >and it smelled like excellent gorgonzola. I put it in a dish in the
>> >fridge, because I am curious -- is it safe to taste and maybe to eat?
>> >If it tastes as good as it smells, and is safe, then why not? Isn't it
>> >just extremely fatty cheese?
>>
>> 1. Butter gets moldy?
>> 2. If it did, throw it out. Costs just a few pennies to replace.
>> 3. Or don't. God be with you.
>
>I'm just curious. This is how people discovered cheese. It really does
>smell like fine gorgonzola. The only question is this -- are there
>dangerous molds that can infect butter, or are they generally safe?
>People (even well known TV chefs) eat all kinds of rotten food. I
>don't have a problem eating anything other cultures eat and don't get
>sick from.
>
Let's just say that if eating moldy butter was a good idea, we'd be
doing it by this time.



--
I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number of carats in a diamond.

Mae West

Monsignor Tartarus Sanctus wrote:

>
> I'm just curious. This is how people discovered cheese. It really does
> smell like fine gorgonzola. The only question is this -- are there
> dangerous molds that can infect butter, or are they generally safe?
> People (even well known TV chefs) eat all kinds of rotten food. I
> don't have a problem eating anything other cultures eat and don't get
> sick from.
>
> Tartarus


Some molds are carcinogenic. DO you know what kind you have?
I thought not. It's YOUR choice.

gloria p

Monsignor Tartarus Sanctus wrote:
> On Jun 24, 11:48 pm, sf <.> wrote:
>> On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:34:08 -0700 (PDT), Monsignor Tartarus Sanctus
>>
>> > wrote:
>>> Hi all. We went on vacation and left a covered butter dish with a full
>>> stick of butter for a month. When we returned, it was covered with
>>> many different colored molds, but as man is wont to do, I smelled it,
>>> and it smelled like excellent gorgonzola. I put it in a dish in the
>>> fridge, because I am curious -- is it safe to taste and maybe to eat?
>>> If it tastes as good as it smells, and is safe, then why not? Isn't it
>>> just extremely fatty cheese?
>> 1. Butter gets moldy?
>> 2. If it did, throw it out. Costs just a few pennies to replace.
>> 3. Or don't. God be with you.
>
> I'm just curious. This is how people discovered cheese. It really does
> smell like fine gorgonzola. The only question is this -- are there
> dangerous molds that can infect butter, or are they generally safe?
> People (even well known TV chefs) eat all kinds of rotten food. I
> don't have a problem eating anything other cultures eat and don't get
> sick from.
>

You wrote: "People (even well known TV chefs) eat all kinds of rotten
food."

That made me laugh.

> Tartarus

--Bryan

On Jun 25, 7:46 am, "jmcquown" > wrote:
> Mark Thorson wrote:
> > Monsignor Tartarus Sanctus wrote:
>
> >> I'm just curious. This is how people discovered cheese. It really
> >> does smell like fine gorgonzola. The only question is this -- are
> >> there dangerous molds that can infect butter, or are they generally
> >> safe? People (even well known TV chefs) eat all kinds of rotten
> >> food. I don't have a problem eating anything other cultures eat and
> >> don't get sick from.
>
> > Sounds good! I'm willing to risk your life on it!
>
> Anyone else smell a moldy troll?
>
> Jill

Why would you think its a troll? I still have it in the fridge. Until
I get a definitive answer about the types of mold that can grow on
butter, I am not eating it. But I assure you, if I find out that it is
safe, taste it, and maybe eat it, I will.

Tartarus

Monsignor Tartarus Sanctus wrote:
>
> Why would you think its a troll? I still have it in the fridge. Until
> I get a definitive answer about the types of mold that can grow on
> butter, I am not eating it. But I assure you, if I find out that it is
> safe, taste it, and maybe eat it, I will.


When you find that definitive answer, will you let me know where you got
it? I'm interested too.


--Lia

On Jun 26, 12:11 pm, Julia Altshuler > wrote:
> Monsignor Tartarus Sanctus wrote:
>
> > Why would you think its a troll? I still have it in the fridge. Until
> > I get a definitive answer about the types of mold that can grow on
> > butter, I am not eating it. But I assure you, if I find out that it is
> > safe, taste it, and maybe eat it, I will.
>
> When you find that definitive answer, will you let me know where you got
> it? I'm interested too.
>
> --Lia

I discovered through a little internet research that Listeriosis is a
definite possibility with this stuff, so I am not going to eat it.
Listeria has 25 times the death rate as Samonella, so you can see why.

Tartarus

"Monsignor Tartarus Sanctus" > wrote in message
...
> Hi all. We went on vacation and left a covered butter dish with a full
> stick of butter for a month. When we returned, it was covered with
> many different colored molds, but as man is wont to do, I smelled it,
> and it smelled like excellent gorgonzola. I put it in a dish in the
> fridge, because I am curious -- is it safe to taste and maybe to eat?
> If it tastes as good as it smells, and is safe, then why not? Isn't it
> just extremely fatty cheese?
>
> Tartarus

You are kidding, right?