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The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could Be Wood

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11–20 of 22 posts

Re: The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could Be Wood

#11
post #7
post #2

> German brewers protect their reputations with Reinheitsgebot, a series of purity laws first drawn up 500 years ago, and Champagne makers prohibit most vineyards outside their turf from using the name. This is codified in EU law as Protected Designation of Origin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_indications_and_t... Parmesan is protected by it, as are lots of other cheeses. Parmesan-alikes are sold under…

The US doesn't participate in the protection of geographical names because it reduces competitiveness of local industries. For better or worse, these names have become generic, a wine maker can't be expected to write "a bubbly wine made in the style of the champagne region, made from grapes bred in the region", you just write champagne on the bottle and don't export to the EU. Also, most of our placenamed foods are n…

There is a common, generic alternative word for champagne: "Sparkling wine", so your example is really far-fetched.

Meanwhile, several alternatives have had success with their own name, such as Cava.

Re: The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could Be Wood

#12
post #6

Bizarre. Surely you'd notice the difference between Parmesan and wood? Or Cheddar? Cheddar is great, but a totally different kind of cheese than Parmesan. But I have heard that many frozen cheese pizzas use fake cheese. Even in Europe. Because the ingredients used for fake cheese are in the pizza anyway, and if you put just a bit of cheese on it you can still put it on the label. The ingredients aren't false, but the…

wood pulp.

Re: The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could Be Wood

#13
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US doesn't participate in the protection of geographical names because it reduces competitiveness of local industries. For better or worse, these names have become generic, a wine maker can't be expected to write "a bubbly wine made in the style of the champagne region, made from grapes bred in the region", you just write champagne on the bottle and don't export to the EU. Also, most of our placenamed foods are n…

There is a common, generic alternative word for champagne: "Sparkling wine", so your example is really far-fetched. Meanwhile, several alternatives have had success with their own name, such as Cava.

Sparkling wine might not have been made with the champagne method, and some people think that's important.

Cava uses the champagne method; prosecco uses Metodo Martinotti. Some wines just use injected carbon dioxide.

Re: The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could Be Wood

#15
post #7
post #2

> German brewers protect their reputations with Reinheitsgebot, a series of purity laws first drawn up 500 years ago, and Champagne makers prohibit most vineyards outside their turf from using the name. This is codified in EU law as Protected Designation of Origin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_indications_and_t... Parmesan is protected by it, as are lots of other cheeses. Parmesan-alikes are sold under…

The US doesn't participate in the protection of geographical names because it reduces competitiveness of local industries. For better or worse, these names have become generic, a wine maker can't be expected to write "a bubbly wine made in the style of the champagne region, made from grapes bred in the region", you just write champagne on the bottle and don't export to the EU. Also, most of our placenamed foods are n…

> For better or worse, these names have become generic, a wine maker can't be expected to write "a bubbly wine made in the style of the champagne region, made from grapes bred in the region", you just write champagne on the bottle and don't export to the EU.

IME, most US-produced bottles of sparkling wine that is informally referred to as "champagne" are not, in fact, labeled as champagne. (They are often labeled with terms associated with -- even if not exclusively so -- Champagne-style sparkling wines, such as cuvee or blanc de noirs or brut.)

Re: The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could Be Wood

#16
Am I just tired? Or do these two lines side-by-side imply that there's actually cheese that's 100% made of wood?

"The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could be Wood" "Some brands promising 100% purity contained no Parmesan at all"

(Later on in the article it explained that it's because some labelled Parmesan were actually mixtures of mozza and swiss, but I definitely was expecting to read about 100% wood pulp cheese-like products!)

Re: The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could Be Wood

#17
What you U.S. citizens miss is that the real Parmigiano Reggiano is made in a very small area of North Italy, with a very specific combination of grass, terrain, weather and manufacturing that make that unique feature you can't find anywhere else in the world. Just for example: if you move just a few kilometers outside that area, taste changes so much that, despite you are still in Italy, what you produce can't be called "Parmigiano" but, instead, will be "Grana Padano", will cost about half the price, and will substantially change the flavour of your food. So, please don't call that yellowish substance "italian cheese", that's not. It's american product or, if you prefer, fake food. Wood-based or not.

Re: The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could Be Wood

#20
post #17

What you U.S. citizens miss is that the real Parmigiano Reggiano is made in a very small area of North Italy, with a very specific combination of grass, terrain, weather and manufacturing that make that unique feature you can't find anywhere else in the world. Just for example: if you move just a few kilometers outside that area, taste changes so much that, despite you are still in Italy, what you produce can't be ca…

No shortage of the real stuff here. http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/department/article/parmigian...

I don't buy it very often because IIRC it's about $25 a pound. It's even more expensive than that, because the rind isn't edible.

edit: I don't think that adding the rind to soup or stew qualifies as "edible". It won't kill you, but I'm not going to make stew just to use it up.

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