The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could Be Wood
1–10 of 22 posts
Re: The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could Be Wood
#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 different names to avoid lawsuits (leading to interesting brand names like "Rapesan" here in Austria).
It's surprising the USA does not have similar laws.
Re: The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could Be Wood
#3> 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…
This isn't about protectionist actions in favor of established industries but adulterated food products and false labeling about ingredients, problems that are more important to the public than geographic origin.
Re: The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could Be Wood
#4This isn't very surprising. Nearly all crumbled or shredded cheeses seem to be using cellulose (or something like it) at the very least to prevent clumping. I've always suspected it would be more succeptible to adulteration. Even more reason to buy it in block form.
Re: The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could Be Wood
#5> 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…
This isn't about protectionist actions in favor of established industries but adulterated food products and false labeling about ingredients, problems that are more important to the public than geographic origin.
> This isn't about protectionist actions in favor of established industries
Thank you, Tea Party.
> but adulterated food products and false labeling about ingredients
Which is also regulated for PDO products and the biggest reason why it exists in the first place. Why is nobody in the US enforcing labelling rules similarly?
Re: The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could Be Wood
#6Bizarre. 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 stuff that looks like cheese isn't all cheese.
We grate our own Parmesan, but we don't make our own pizzas.
Re: The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could Be Wood
#7> 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 not really transportable: New York pizza, Boston cream pie, philly cheese steak, etc.
Re: The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could Be Wood
#8The headline's a bit misleading.
Re: The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could Be Wood
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
This isn't about protectionist actions in favor of established industries but adulterated food products and false labeling about ingredients, problems that are more important to the public than geographic origin.
> This isn't about protectionist actions in favor of established industries Thank you, Tea Party. > but adulterated food products and false labeling about ingredients Which is also regulated for PDO products and the biggest reason why it exists in the first place. Why is nobody in the US enforcing labelling rules similarly?
So Italian cheesemakers could never sell adulterated cheeses? Let's be realistic here.
Re: The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could Be Wood
#10Life is too short for crappy hard-cheese.
I can't think of a good reason to buy the pre-grated stuff. Not even convenience. Especially considering that it takes a such a long time to spoil. Just get a nice-ish grater and a block of the good stuff. 20 seconds of effort for something that actually has more flavor and subtlety than a sweat sock.