Storekeeper Finds Insanely Old Piece Of Cheese

Wisconsin Cheese Mart plans on selling this 40-year-old
cheese

MILWAUKEE — A recently discovered block of eastern Wisconsin cheddar cheese that dates back to the Nixon presidency will be sold for $10 per ounce.

Edward Zahn, 73, was in Z's Cheese Shoppe's walk-in cooler last month, preparing to shut down his Oconto store. He pushed aside stacks of cheese to reveal several wooden boxes that had been overlooked for years.

Inside were blocks of unintentionally aged cheddar – 28, 34 and 40 years old – that, some experts say, might comprise the oldest collection of cheese ever assembled and sold to the public.

"It just got overlooked," Zahn told the Wisconsin State Journal of the 40-year-old cheese. "It looks just like the others except it's just a lot sharper. It's got character."

Ken McNulty, who owns the Wisconsin Cheese Mart in Milwaukee, bought about 20 pounds of the 40-year-old cheddar and 120 pounds of 34-year cheddar. He declined to reveal the price he paid.

Cheese is often sold by the pound, but McNulty plans to sell the oldest cheese by the ounce so more people can get a taste.

"Because there's so little, we didn't want to sell blocks of it on the Web," he told The Associated Press. "We just wanted people to sample it."

So what does cheddar taste like when it's been sitting around since 1972.

"If you get a piece close to the outside, it's all crystallization, so it's crunchy like Corn Flakes," McNulty said. "As you get closer to the interior, it's creamier and overwhelmingly sharp."

-  AP