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Parmigiano-Reggiano: Italy's 'practically perfect' food

bbc.com

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Re: Parmigiano-Reggiano: Italy's 'practically perfect' food

#51

Post by antoineMoPa »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #26
antoineMoPa wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. The only thing preventing me from eating a pound of parmigiano is the price. Sad parmesan powder? Nope. It makes me sad that we have to move the product around the world to consume it because it is just made at 1 precise location, emitting a lot of CO2.

> The only thing preventing me from eating a pound of parmigiano is the price. That's the only thing? And just because something was produced locally doesn't necessarily mean it has less carbon footprint than one produced halfway around the world. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1553456/Greener-by-m...

> > The only thing preventing me from eating a pound of parmigiano is the price.

> That's the only thing?

Yes. I did not specify time though. Let's say 8 hours.

Re: Parmigiano-Reggiano: Italy's 'practically perfect' food

#52

Post by throw7 »

LandR wrote: post #29
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #3

>Few of these fans would recognise much of what’s sold today. The white flakes many of us grew up shaking from a green can aren’t parmesan, not even close. Within the EU, both Parmigiano-Reggiano and its anglicised version, “parmesan”, are legally registered terms protected by the PDO – protected designation of origin – label since 1996. But in the US, the law protects only the name “Parmigiano-Reggiano” (In the EU,…

I buy parmagiano-regianno and find it goes off and starts going moudly at the back (circular bit) after a couple of weeks. Do you keep it in the fridge, wrapped, what? How do you store it so it lasts so long?

I wrap my cheese in a lightly damp paper towel of white vinegar. I suppose that is probably sacrilege and passes on some vinegar taste, but I don't notice and it generally keeps the mold away.

Re: Parmigiano-Reggiano: Italy's 'practically perfect' food

#53

Post by klmr »

twic wrote: post #25

There's a lot of woo in that article. Yes, Parmesan is made to strict rules; no, i probably couldn't tell it from Grana Padano if i was blindfolded. And there's an effort from Wisconsin that is apparently very good: https://www.thekitchn.com/a-morethanworthy-replacement-f-132...

> no, i probably couldn't tell it from Grana Padano if i was blindfolded.

I can — they are quite different cheeses. Apart from the different taste and texture (Grana Padano has reliably less taste, and is dryer and more crumbly), I am extremely allergic to Grana Padano: after eating even a tiny piece my throat will swell up and slowly constrict (not life threatening, I think, but definitely uncomfortable). Parmigiano Reggiano doesn’t elicit the same reaction. It’s a very reliable, albeit unpractical, way of telling the two apart. Either way, this indicates that they are distinct on a fundamental level.

(Just to clarify: this allergy obviously isn’t specific to Grana Padano, it affects plenty of other dairy products. And, as far as I can tell, seems to be against some by-product of the fermentation that is only present in some dairy products and not others.)

Re: Parmigiano-Reggiano: Italy's 'practically perfect' food

#54

Post by reubeniv »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #3

>Few of these fans would recognise much of what’s sold today. The white flakes many of us grew up shaking from a green can aren’t parmesan, not even close. Within the EU, both Parmigiano-Reggiano and its anglicised version, “parmesan”, are legally registered terms protected by the PDO – protected designation of origin – label since 1996. But in the US, the law protects only the name “Parmigiano-Reggiano” (In the EU,…

does the PDO actually guarantee quality? It guarantees it's made in a particular region, and the case for it is that certain ingredients are only available in that region but, for example, I often buy own-brand 'Italian-style hard cheese', which is effectively the same, it's just made outside of Italy so can't share the name.

Call me cynical, DPOs seem abused and more about protecting regional industries as apposed to guaranteeing quality for consumers.

Re: Parmigiano-Reggiano: Italy's 'practically perfect' food

#55

Post by throwaway2048 »

LandR wrote: post #29
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #3

>Few of these fans would recognise much of what’s sold today. The white flakes many of us grew up shaking from a green can aren’t parmesan, not even close. Within the EU, both Parmigiano-Reggiano and its anglicised version, “parmesan”, are legally registered terms protected by the PDO – protected designation of origin – label since 1996. But in the US, the law protects only the name “Parmigiano-Reggiano” (In the EU,…

I buy parmagiano-regianno and find it goes off and starts going moudly at the back (circular bit) after a couple of weeks. Do you keep it in the fridge, wrapped, what? How do you store it so it lasts so long?

Cut the mold off, it wont kill you, its completely safe to do so with hard cheeses.

Re: Parmigiano-Reggiano: Italy's 'practically perfect' food

#56

Post by jamesgagan »

ceejayoz wrote: post #49
jamesgagan wrote: post #41

friendly reminder that if you are concerned about animals or the environment, you should give up dairy products. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding... as well, these animals are apparently not well treated https://action.ciwf.org.uk/page/20874/action/1?locale=en-GB

The charts in The Guardian's article indicate cheese is much more environmentally friendly than beef consumption.

that's true, yet cheese is still in the top 5 on the chart and still produces much higher emissions than plant based alternatives.

Re: Parmigiano-Reggiano: Italy's 'practically perfect' food

#57

Post by cies »

wenc wrote: post #20
arthursilva wrote: post #4

It's an absolutely delicious cheese, but why write this nutritional nonsense about "perfect food"?

I love my Parmigiano-Reggiano too, but agree, it is not a perfect food (perfect in the sense of "complete"). It doesn't have much fiber for instance.

And it does have saturated fats and cholesterol more than you'd like.

Re: Parmigiano-Reggiano: Italy's 'practically perfect' food

#59

Post by ceejayoz »

basch wrote: post #50
sgc wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come on. That last is obviously a "championship" which is completely biased towards American style and palate, and probably only has a very few non-American cheeses in the competition. It is run by the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association, and might not even have many submissions that aren't from Wisconsin. They only list styles and winners but it is transparently biased/primarily local. Similar comments can be made f…

They may or may not be impartial, but is it really any different than the EU PDO? If Italy can claim the flavor is special to the region, Wisconsin should be able to make similar claims of their superiority. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/how-good-has-u...

PDO doesn't claim "this is better", just "this is made in a consistent fashion from consistent ingredients and will have a consistent taste".

Wisconsin can most certainly get a protected origin mark, if they like.

It's like McDonalds vs. a diner. You know exactly what you get when you got to a McDonalds; it will be essentially identical all over the country. Going to a diner may be amazing, or it may be shit.

Re: Parmigiano-Reggiano: Italy's 'practically perfect' food

#60

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

antoineMoPa wrote: post #51
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only thing preventing me from eating a pound of parmigiano is the price. That's the only thing? And just because something was produced locally doesn't necessarily mean it has less carbon footprint than one produced halfway around the world. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1553456/Greener-by-m...

> > The only thing preventing me from eating a pound of parmigiano is the price. > That's the only thing? Yes. I did not specify time though. Let's say 8 hours.

Even over that sort of timeline, I don't trust my colon enough to try and tackle that.
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