$3,200 for 40 year old cheese

  

It's a 40-year-old block of cheddar cheese, and it is being sold for $10 per ounce.

It was discovered in a Milwaukee grocery store refrigerator where it had been about forgotten for decades.

It was when Edward Zahn was closing down his Z's Cheese Shoppe, when he discovered some abandoned crates in the back of the walk-in cooler. 

Within the wooden boxes he found a stash of old eastern Wisconsin cheddar cheese, aged 28, 34 and 40.

'It just got overlooked,' Zahn said of the 40-year-old variety. 'It looks just like the others except it's just a lot sharper. It's got character.'

Believed to be the oldest of its kind to ever go on sale to the public, the cheese is being sold at $10 per ounce.

Cheese is often sold by the pound, but the plan is to sell the  ounce, just enough for two people to sample.

There is also 120 pounds of the 34-year-old batch but that will be saved for a later date. That could sell close to $20,000.

Both the 40-year-old and 28-year-old blocks have been sampled and surprisingly, the milk in the cheese hadn't soured. 

So, if you wondering what cheddar cheese taste like when it's been sitting around since 1972, the outside is all crystallization, so it's crunchy like Corn Flakes.

Apparently it's the sharpest cheese ever, but very creamy.

As you get closer to the interior, it's creamier and overwhelmingly sharp.  While the exterior is unbelievably grotesque, the inside is OK.

Listeria Warning Issued For Mozzarella Cheese

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is warning the public not to eat a Silani brand mozzarella cheese  because of Listeria contamination.


What is Listeria?
The bacterium called Listeria monocytogenes, often found in soil, vegetation, animal feed and feces, can cause the disease listeriosis in humans who eat food contaminated with it.

Where is it found?
In vegetables contaminated by soil or manure used as fertilizer; infected animals can contaminate meat; unpasteurized milk may contain listeria, and certain processed foods like soft cheeses, deli meats and hot dogs can become contaminated after processing.

What happens if you eat it?
nausea
vomiting
cramps
diarrhea
headache
constipation
persistent fever

If it spreads to the nervous system, signs and symptoms may include headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, convulsions. In newborn babies who have been infected, signs include loss of appetite, lethargy, jaundice, vomiting, skin rash, breathing difficulty.

When do symptoms appear?
Symptoms usually appear within two to 30 days, and up to 90 days after consuming contaminated food, according to Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Average incubation period is three weeks, says Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

The federal agency said the affected cheese is sold in 340-gram packages bearing UPC 0 650525 7 and a best-before date of March 1, 2011.

It was manufactured by Silani Sweet Cheese Ltd. of Schomberg, Ont., and distributed in Ontario and Quebec. The company is voluntarily recalling the product.

Foods contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes may not look or smell spoiled, so please, don't cut the cheese.

Top Secret Weight Loss Foods

For those of you who want to eat better for the next few months, here are our 8 top secret foods for weight loss,
it's painless, try it and watch as the pounds melt away.


FULL FAT CHEESE
That's right, full fat cheese, it's an excellent source of casein protein-- one of the best muscle-building nutrients you can eat. What's more, Danish researchers found that even when men ate 10 ounces of full-fat cheese daily for 3 weeks, their LDL ("bad") cholesterol didn't change.


PORK CHOPS
Repeat after us, I LOVE PORK.
When it comes to per gram of protein, pork chops contain almost five times the selenium--an essential mineral that's linked to a lower risk of prostate cancer--of beef, and twice that of chicken. And Purdue researchers found that a 6-ounce serving daily helped people preserve their muscle while losing weight.

ICE COFFEE
Coffee reduces your appetite, increases your metabolism, and gives you a nice dose of antioxidants.
The average metabolic rate of people who drink caffeinated coffee is 16 percent higher than that of those who drink decaf.
Caffeine stimulates your central nervous system by increasing your heart rate and breathing.
Really, could there be a more perfect beverage?

GRAPEFRUIT
Scientists discovered that people who ate half a grapefruit three times a day lost 4 pounds in 12 weeks, even though they ate a normal diet the rest of the time.

APPLES
An apple a day may also keep the weight away.
Researchers discovered that people who ate a large apple 15 minutes before lunch took in almost 200 fewer calories during a meal compared to those who didn’t eat that apple beforehand.

EGGS
Forget the breakfast bars and cold cereal, eating eggs and bacon in the morning can help you control your appetite during the day. Protein at breakfast leaves you feeling full longer.


BEANS
Researchers found that people who consumed beans were 23 percent less likely to have large waists than those who said they never ate them. Bean eaters seem to have lower blood-pressure issues.
Beans are rich in potassium, which helps fight hypertension. Try for half a cup of cooked beans 3 or 4 days a week.

SALMON
The omega-3 fatty acids found in Salmon help you feel full longer. Eating foods high in omega-3s increased blood levels of leptin, a hormone that promotes feeling full. If you wont eat fish take a fish-oil capsule every day - one that has 500 milligrams of the omega-3s DHA and EPA.

You may stay on this top secret weight loss plan even longer than a few months, who knows, you may even enjoy it.

15 Year Old Cheese - now on sale

We turn our attention to the oldest cheese available to the public.
It's 15 years old, it's $50 a pound, and it's cheddar.

During the past 15 years, more than 1,000 pounds of cheese sat wrapped in plastic in a cooler set at 38 degrees in the Hook's cheese factory, just waiting for it's debute.

“It’s very unusual to keep a cheese that long,” said Mark Johnson of the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research. “The oldest I’ve seen commonly is six to eight years. Fifteen-year cheeses, those are pretty rare.”
The Hooks’ factory is open to the public just one day a week -- on Friday.
The cheese will be for sale there on Friday and at the Dane County Farmers’ Market at Monona Terrace on Saturday. It will sell for $35.95 a pound, $50.00 a pound at specialty shops.
“It’s like a good Scotch, the people that like it and know it are willing to pay the price,” said Ken Monteleone, owner of Fromagination, which will sell the cheese.
“We get people who say, ‘Why is it so expensive?’” Monteleone said, “and we say, ‘If you put your money in the bank 15 years ago, what kind of return would you expect?’ That kind of shuts them up.”

The Hooks will sell 1,200 pounds of the 15-year cheddar in this first batch.
Another batch will be available in three months; Hook declined to say how big that batch will be.
He also couldn’t say just how old he’d go with his cheeses.
“I’d like to hold a block or two to 20 years, but if everything sells out, I might not be able to,” he said. “I might hide one, though. Who knows?”

But how does it taste?

"It's smooth, it isn't bitter, it doesn't have an off flavor. It doesn't have an acidic bite like a three-year.

It's very flavorful," Hook said. "It's got a lot more cheddar flavor."

Hook recommends pairing the cheddar with wine and a good cracker or bread.

One guy bought the cheese because he loves art..

"Cheese making is an art form," Brian Morello, who bought a 3/4-pound hunk of the vintage cheddar at Larry's Market in Milwaukee, told the Journal Sentinel. "I consider my purchase to be a form of cheese philanthropy. For $50, I supported the arts and got a great piece of cheese."