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Why Tap a Wheel of Cheese?

cheeseprofessor.com

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Re: Why Tap a Wheel of Cheese?

#121

Post by Flozzin »

thierrydamiba wrote: post #65
BobaFloutist wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is it's actually a super fun thought experiment/engineering problem to try to figure out how to do this technologically, but any such attempt would (rightly) be taken as an attack on this profession because even if it was a silly blog post about overthinking a silly problem, silly blogposts are potentially upstream of (maybe even someone else) a commercial implementation that eventually destroys a profess…

Do professions really get destroyed? Or does the world just change? I used to get paid to do OCR on tax forms. I used n gram models, BERT,etc and it took weeks to get the forms right. Now you can do it in seconds with an api. I wouldn’t say the profession got destroyed. I just work with different tools now. Instead of running ngrams, I’m testing different apis or embedding models. The old job doesn’t exist anymore, i…

Our culture tends to embrace technological progress. But we don't have to. It's just something we do accept. And yes, many technologies have eliminated jobs. Some have created new ones sure, but it's not always 1 to 1. Not everyone replaced on an assembly line by a robot or machine, is needed to repair or build that new machine.

Our tendency to 'progress' doesn't have to be the case, we all could collectively decide to hold ourselves here.

Also, I don't think that all our technology has always been good for us either. But we are blind to the downsides mostly.

Re: Why Tap a Wheel of Cheese?

#122

Post by [deleted] »

jacobgkau wrote: post #77

It's interesting to me that, from what they describe, they still sell the cheese regardless of the outcome of this tapping test. It's just that they sell it unbranded if it's of the lowest quality, and with a different marking for medium quality than highest-quality. I suppose wheels of cheese can last a lot longer than normal table cheese, so that's why it makes sense to make this distinction.

[deleted]

Re: Why Tap a Wheel of Cheese?

#123

Post by chuckadams »

mano78 wrote: post #12
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #2

Will an AI be able to do this too? Probably. Hey! I don't think it's a good idea. But if it's cheap and effective, guess how long it will take?

Not even an AI, there are simpler ways. But as an italian, I will be in the pitchforks-armed horrified mob if this will be proposed. Not a chance.

Presumably the mob would be armed with little hammers.

Re: Why Tap a Wheel of Cheese?

#124

Post by Quarrel »

fracus wrote: post #85
ziofill wrote: post #38

Probably I'm biased because I'm Italian and I grew up eating them, but Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano are hands down the best cheeses there can be. Many people know and consume them only grated on pasta dishes, but they are especially delicious on their own with some good bread or grilled polenta. Also, the crust can be chopped up and added to risotto (as you're cooking it) and they turn into wonderful little c…

I tried Grana Padano once and my take away was that I would never choose that cheese over Parmigiano Reggiano. Isn't it just an inferior similar cheese?

Not necessarily, but yes on average.

Parmigiano Reggiano is more tightly controlled, and has larger total cheese produced (by a fair bit I think).

Very good Grana Padano can be just as good, but there are lots of bulk producers who turn out younger, cheaper cheese, that is yummy, but not as good as aged Parmigiano Reggiano.

FWIW, in the USA in particular, there is quite an industry in fake Parmigiano Reggiano.

https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2023-08-25/c...

Re: Why Tap a Wheel of Cheese?

#125

Post by ladelfa »

This reminded me of the story about Charles Proteus Steinmetz diagnosing the problem inside a generator at Henry Ford's auto plant just by listening to it very carefully.

"Ford, whose electrical engineers couldn’t solve some problems they were having with a gigantic generator, called Steinmetz in to the plant. Upon arriving, Steinmetz rejected all assistance and asked only for a notebook, pencil and cot. According to Scott, Steinmetz listened to the generator and scribbled computations on the notepad for two straight days and nights. On the second night, he asked for a ladder, climbed up the generator and made a chalk mark on its side. Then he told Ford’s skeptical engineers to remove a plate at the mark and replace sixteen windings from the field coil. They did, and the generator performed to perfection.

Henry Ford was thrilled until he got an invoice from General Electric in the amount of $10,000. Ford acknowledged Steinmetz’s success but balked at the figure. He asked for an itemized bill.

Steinmetz ... responded personally to Ford’s request with the following:

Making chalk mark on generator $1.

Knowing where to make mark $9,999.

Ford paid the bill."

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/charles-proteus-stein...

Re: Why Tap a Wheel of Cheese?

#126

Post by 9991 »

paulorlando wrote: post #80
thierrydamiba wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do professions really get destroyed? Or does the world just change? I used to get paid to do OCR on tax forms. I used n gram models, BERT,etc and it took weeks to get the forms right. Now you can do it in seconds with an api. I wouldn’t say the profession got destroyed. I just work with different tools now. Instead of running ngrams, I’m testing different apis or embedding models. The old job doesn’t exist anymore, i…

And even with the existence of those tools, the old professions continue for years, sometimes many years, in niches. For example, even today there are people who are paid to wake up others manually - a job that used to be called "knocker-up."

Knocker-up? I hardly know 'er!

Re: Why Tap a Wheel of Cheese?

#127

Post by usepgp »

faizan-ali wrote: post #92
ericjmorey wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably not anymore

In the US, the best example is in California. To get the California Olive Oil Council stamp of extra virgin quality, you must have your oil tasted by the government body. I'm one of such tasters :)

This is why I mostly buy Californian olive oil now. I like the legit italian or spanish kind more, but it's faked so often in the grocery store that it isn't even worth attempting to decide if it's real. Sometimes the fakes tell you it's cut with olives from africa, and sometimes they don't. The US importers are held to no standards whatsoever. At least when I buy california olive oil, it's 95% of the way there and guaranteed to be real.

Re: Why Tap a Wheel of Cheese?

#128

Post by usepgp »

antisthenes wrote: post #54
lblume wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm certain it was related to the "vegetarian enzymes" How can you be so certain? I did not find any credible source correlating microbial rennet to rash. Thus I would not rule out that this was simply a coincidence or at least not applicable for most people.

> How can you be so certain? "Vibe diagnosing"

Vibagnosis

Re: Why Tap a Wheel of Cheese?

#129

Post by riffraff »

dfxm12 wrote: post #28
SamBam wrote: post #4

I am glad that this continues to be done by hand, and expect, based on Italian attitudes towards food and tradition, that it will continue being done by hand for another hundred years. It is interesting how important it seems to us that jobs like this remain done in the traditional way. For all their expertise, I am sure a technical solution would also easily be able to detect what they are looking for: voids within…

based on Italian attitudes towards food and tradition, that it will continue being done by hand for another hundred years. I'm unfamiliar with the regs on this, but can the duties of the battitore be written into the standard for the cheese?

AFAIK the battitori are employed directly from the Consorzio, the trade association which owns the brand.

So what's written in the _disciplinare_ is the expectation that the wheel is flawless and that the experts will validate it at certain times. The details of how the validation is performed is vague, it mentions using the hammer but doesn't specify stuff like "it sounds X".

Re: Why Tap a Wheel of Cheese?

#130

Post by riffraff »

hk__2 wrote: post #50
ziofill wrote: post #38

Probably I'm biased because I'm Italian and I grew up eating them, but Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano are hands down the best cheeses there can be. Many people know and consume them only grated on pasta dishes, but they are especially delicious on their own with some good bread or grilled polenta. Also, the crust can be chopped up and added to risotto (as you're cooking it) and they turn into wonderful little c…

I can’t really rate cheeses on a scale; A 36-months comté or emmental has very different flavours from a 36-months Parmigiano and I wouldn’t rate one "better" than the other. Like any good cheese, I agree that Parmigiano Reggiano is best eaten on its own. I’m French and something that surprise me is that both Italy and France have very good cheeses, but only in France we eat cheese on its own as part of the meal: the…

Cheese as a standalone course was a thing in Italy too, after the other courses, and it disappeared in recent decades.

You can see remnants in pop culture, e.g. in the '80s we had a tv quiz show called "il pranzo è servito" ("lunch is served") where participants had to win rounds for each of: first course, second course, cheese, dessert, fruit.

There was also a saying in central Italy "la bocca non è stracca se non sa di vacca" ("the mouth is not tired unless it tastes of cow", which in hindsight is odd cause there's mostly sheep cheese there) but by the '90s the cheese plate had switched to antipasti only, IME.

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