Eating the rind

Here's our first installment of Got a cheese question?

Kristen from Geneva asks:  "I just ate the rind of a Persillé du Beaujolais and it tasted bad, when can I eat the rind of a cheese?"

Hi, Kristen!  If you look at the list of types of cheeses, you can usually eat the rinds (or lack) of the first four: fresh, natural, bloomy/white, and washed.  In all cases, however, the best way to know is to have a small bite and decide for yourself.  The rind should add to the dimensions of flavor rather than overpower the taste of the cheese paste.  This is a general rule of good cheesemaking and careful affinage.

The reason for the vague rind vs. no-rind rule is in the way a cheese ages.  Natural, bloomy, and washed rind cheeses are surface ripened.  The yeasts (like Geotricum), moulds, and cultures (like Brevibacterium linens or B. linens) change the texture of the cheese from the outside-in, giving it depth of character with time.  This rind is an essential part of the whole cheese tasting experience.

Meanwhile,  pressed cheeses are internally ripened thanks to anaerobic (no oxygen needed) enzymes breaking down the cheese proteins.  The rind still adds flavor to the paste of the cheese, but it's also there to keep the moisture in and any potentially harmful bacteria/moulds out.  This rind is usually hard, or man-made (wax, cloth), and possibly many months old.  But then again, some hardcore cheese connoisseurs may eat this rind too (minus wax, cloth) because, after all, it's still a part of the cheese.

For a well written explanation detailing whether to rind or not to rind, you might want to check out Zoe Brickley's post on Big Cheese Stories, the Murray's Cheese of New York blog.

 One cheese, many ages, natural rind