If there’s one question I can count on getting in every cheese tasting I lead, it’s “Can you eat the rind?” I used to have a convoluted answer. Then Mateo Kehler, the wise man behind Vermont’s Jasper Hill Farm (along with his brother Andy), distilled it. “Rind your own business” is Kehler’s concise version of what I was trying to convey: Try the rind. If you like it, keep eating it. If you don’t, cut it away. Kehler also told me that he works harder on achieving a perfect rind than on any other aspect of his cheese.

Rinds are diverse and fascinating—and critical to how the cheese develops. That’s why I’m devoting a whole class to the topic (“Deep Dive Into Cheese Rinds”) on Tuesday, July 11. We’ll taste seven exceptional cheeses with seven different exterior treatments. You’ll leave with a better sense of what the rind contributes. And, no, I won’t make you eat it. That’s up to you.

Eons ago, when I first started writing about cheese, I went to a tasting presented by a famous French affineur (cheese ager). Someone asked about eating the rind and he replied, “Absolument non. The rind is just the packaging.”

In retrospect, I don’t think he really meant that all rinds should be cut away. I’ve certainly seen many French people eat the outside of a Camembert, as I do. In my view, you miss a lot of pleasure if you don’t eat every bit of a Taleggio or Cowgirl Creamery Red Hawk. That said, here are a few things to know about rinds:

• Apart from waxed cheeses, all rinds are edible. They may not be tasty, but they won’t hurt you. The microorganisms that constitute a rind are all good actors. Cheesemakers add them, or they are naturally present in the environment.

• Many hard cheeses are coated with a thin, breathable food-grade polymer to minimize mold growth and moisture loss. If you’re concerned about consuming this coating, you can easily peel it off. Personally, I don’t typically eat hard rinds—rind my own business, right?—so I ignore the coating.

• Even if you don’t like the taste of a Brie rind, be courteous about it. You can do whatever you like to the wedge you put on your plate, but don’t be the jerk who digs out the inside of the Brie on the cheese board.

• Over the centuries, cheesemakers have used a long list of ingredients on rinds—to season their wheels, protect them or help them stand out in a crowd. A few of their choices: coffee grounds, tomato paste, cocoa, black pepper, pimentón, dried herbs, chamomile, juniper berries, rose petals, stinging nettles, cabbage leaves, chestnut leaves, grape leaves, ferns, hay, hemp, red wine and brandy.

• Remember to save your Parmigiano Reggiano rinds. When you’ve grated all you can, collect the rinds in a Tupperware-type container in your freezer. Add a rind to the pot when you’re making minestrone or cooking beans; it adds lots of flavor. When you have several rinds, you can make Parm stock for risotto. Some stores, such as Whole Foods, even sell the rinds so you don’t have to hoard them.

I hope to see you in class on July 11 for a deeper dive into cheese rinds and the magic they work on cheese.