Mould: a controversy as old as time itself

[Bullet Magnet]

I'm always dissecting my bread and cheese to eliminate mouldy patches.

I announce, with no apparent context nor motivation.

[Nate]

That's dangerous. If there's a spot of visible mould, there are miniscule roots going through the entire loaf.

[Alcar]

Crap. All these years!

Alcar...

[Bullet Magnet]

That's dangerous. If there's a spot of visible mould, there are miniscule roots going through the entire loaf.

Which means that it was also riddled with hyphae before the fruiting bodies appeared, when you would have had no problem eating it.

Besides, the only toxins Rhizopus stolonifer produces are Ergoline alcaloids, which are only harmful to plants in such quantities and are LSD precursors used in many medications.

[Nate]

There are many types of mould.

[Bullet Magnet]

Yes, but the only mould I risk eating more than any of us do is Rhizopus. Anything old enough to get anything else is visibly the property of fungi.

[Havoc]

It's always funny how people cut the mould off cheese. Is a moulding piece of food not an indicator that you should not eat it anymore?

[Bullet Magnet]

Cheese is cheese because it is mouldy. Besides, food is only spoiled because decomposers move in, it's not some ethereal property of perishables that they become no good to eat purely because of their age. As soon as food is exposed to the open air, they begin decomposing, you just can't see it yet. As I say, we have no problem eating all the bacteria and hyphae that swarm our foods, but once a few stolon specks appear, oh noes!

[Havoc]

Cheese is cheese because it is mouldy. Besides, food is only spoiled because decomposers move in, it's not some ethereal property of perishables that they become no good to eat purely because of their age. As soon as food is exposed to the open air, they begin decomposing, you just can't see it yet. As I say, we have no problem eating all the bacteria and hyphae that swarm our foods, but once a few stolon specks appear, oh noes!

Cheese is not mouldy by default. Also I don't know about you but when I grab a piece of cheese to cut some slices off to put on my bread, I won't just go 'hm, it's just some mould' if entire strings of mould are penetrating my cheese and entire mould rain forests are forming on the surface. Are you saying that you would cut off that rain forest and put it on your bread and eat it? Since it's not bad for you?

I don't give a crap about if mould makes me sick or not. Even if an entire block of cheese has been turned into pure mould and it would be GOOD for you I still wouldn't eat it because I want my cheese to taste like cheese and not like some goddamn half plant half fungus half dead animal half dead baby fetus (see what I did there? I took one cheese and made two cheese).

[Nate]

Cheese is cheese because it is mouldy. Besides, food is only spoiled because decomposers move in, it's not some ethereal property of perishables that they become no good to eat purely because of their age. As soon as food is exposed to the open air, they begin decomposing, you just can't see it yet. As I say, we have no problem eating all the bacteria and hyphae that swarm our foods, but once a few stolon specks appear, oh noes!

That's like saying "Every day I breathe in small amounts carbon monoxide and it hasn't killed me yet; maybe I'll start breathing from a gas tank full of the stuff".

[Havoc]

Nate just took my entire argument and squeezed it into a single sentence.

I feel violated

[Bullet Magnet]

Cheese is not mouldy by default. Also I don't know about you but when I grab a piece of cheese to cut some slices off to put on my bread, I won't just go 'hm, it's just some mould' if entire strings of mould are penetrating my cheese and entire mould rain forests are forming on the surface. Are you saying that you would cut off that rain forest and put it on your bread and eat it? Since it's not bad for you?

I think our wires are crossed. I cut off the edge of the cheese with small white/blue patches growing on it, losing about an inch around the spoiled areas. I discard soft cheeses with mould that was not part of the manufacturing process straight away, since foods which high moisture content (which I wasn't discussing anyway) will have been properly spoiled beneath the surface. I do not eat hairy great green monstrosities.

That's like saying "Every day I breathe in small amounts carbon monoxide and it hasn't killed me yet; maybe I'll start breathing from a gas tank full of the stuff".

That's hardly an adequate comparison. At the rate of growth of common bread moulds, the increase of fungal matter between the first visible appearance of mould growth and quantities immediately preceding it is less than the amount removed when the visibly spoiled portions are sheered off, if that doesn't remove it all entirely.

[Nate]

That's hardly an adequate comparison. At the rate of growth of common bread moulds, the increase of fungal matter between the first visible appearance of mould growth and quantities immediately preceding it is less than the amount removed when the visibly spoiled portions are sheered off, if that doesn't remove it all entirely.

I dispute that fact. I once saw an... err... whatever an expert in moulds is called... on a tv show claiming quite the opposite.

[Bullet Magnet]

Mycologist.

I've been working on mould growth this semester in one of my courses. You can see the hyphae growth cloud the agar beneath and around the sporangium.

[Wil]

I never hang on to bread long enough for it to go mouldy. I did, however, once find a small beetle inhabiting the surface of one of my baking potatoes (pre‐baking). My technique is the same for both: remove the visibly distressing bits, eat the rest, and don’t feel ill.

[Havoc]

I have bad habbits when it comes to bread. Sometimes I just forget it's there and when I find it two months later I have this bag of pure mould in my hands. Next time it happens I'll snap a picture .

[OANST]

Mycologist.

I believe that the correct term is Mouldologist. They prefer to be called Mould Men, though.


As a kid I would just cut the offending area off. I no longer am willing to do this. I just pitch it, now.

[Hobo]

ITT: Bullet Magnet rapes us WITH SCIENCE

[Wil]

OTF: Bullet Magnet rapes us WITH SCIENCE.

[Munch's Master]

*fancy talk thats too smart for me at this time in the evening*

Mycologist.

You just know everything don't you BM? Any question and you can answer it with your big Quantum King brain.

[OANST]

You just know everything don't you BM? Any question and you can answer it with your big Quantum King brain.

And thank god for you, sir. Without comments like this his head would never grow to a size suitable for his brain. Thank god for you.

[Munch's Master]

And thank god for you, sir. Without comments like this his head would never grow to a size suitable for his brain. Thank god for you.

I do my best to help out. In this age of overpopulation space is limited, so I figured he needed all the headroom he could get. Glad you appreciate it.

[Pilot]

Anyone ever had their pot grow mold by keeping orange peels in with it too long? It's still good.

[OANST]

Anyone ever had their pot grow mold by keeping orange peels in with it too long? It's still good.

No.

[Pilot]

I find it amusing. One of by friends has had this problem on more than one occasion. I told him to stop buying so much because after sitting around several weeks (even with the peels to keep it fresh) it just gets old. I don't know for sure, but the burning of the mold (though he 'picks out the moldy spots') still can't be good.

[Nate]

Surely just leaving out the orange peel would improve matters? I would have thought that dried leaves would last ages, but when damp citrus peel is added to the equation, moisture is the essence of wetness.

[Pilot]

Yeah.... but the idea is that the orangepeels keep it fresher longer- pot has a tendency to lose potency as it ages and dries out. "GOOD" buds, as I understand it, such as the stuff grown in hydroponic controlled conditions, kind of 'ooze' with dampness so drying it out is not the best thing to do. The idea I think is to pick it and use it asap, not get it and let it sit around a long time.

I'm sure there's got to at least be one other person here who knows more about this.

[OANST]

Yeah.... but the idea is that the orangepeels keep it fresher longer- pot has a tendency to lose potency as it ages and dries out. "GOOD" buds, as I understand it, such as the stuff grown in hydroponic controlled conditions, kind of 'ooze' with dampness so drying it out is not the best thing to do. The idea I think is to pick it and use it asap, not get it and let it sit around a long time.

I'm sure there's got to at least be one other person here who knows more about this.

There was a time. But that time has passed. Also, I deny all knowledge of that time.

[Mojo]

Cheese is not mouldy by default. Also I don't know about you but when I grab a piece of cheese to cut some slices off to put on my bread, I won't just go 'hm, it's just some mould' if entire strings of mould are penetrating my cheese and entire mould rain forests are forming on the surface. Are you saying that you would cut off that rain forest and put it on your bread and eat it? Since it's not bad for you/

Gorgonzola.

[Wil]

I always hated the cheese that was meant to be mouldy. It was mouldy and also it tasted vile.