I’m reading the words in the topic on the ingredients list of my can of Kraft grated parmesan cheese, and I laugh, oh, how I laugh.
Because you know what? IT STILL CAKES! HARD! Whether it’s been in the fridge (which it’s supposed to be) or not! ALL THE TIME!
I say, just get rid of the damn cellulose! It’s not doing any freaking good, since I STILL have to stick a knife down the opening to break up the cakes! Why put it in if it doesn’t work?!?
<grumblegrumble>
Thats what you get for buying pregrated Parmesan. Sorry, but that stuff is rank.
Leaper,
Sorry mate, but this never happens to me (or my pre-grated Kraft parmesan cheese either). Maybe it’s just YOOOOUUUUUU!
Max 
Eeeewwwwwwwwwwwww!
Stinky foot cheese.
Maybe it’s better caked than not.
I wouldn’t eat that stuff if I had a foot fetish !
Yeah - what Gary said.
Pre-grated parmesan, ‘chocolate flavour’ (or sometimes ‘chocolate style’ :eek: ) cake covering, maple flavour syrup, kraft ‘cheese food’ slices.
Should all be consigned to the deepest pits of hell.
Consigned to? They form the deepest pits of hell.
There must be more products like this that any rational person in possession of taste buds must despise; I’ve started a thread in IMHO on the subject.
Leaper, all you need to do is shake the can of grated cheese real vigorously to break up those clods. If the perforated top hasn’t been completely rotated closed, that’ll guarantee you a shower of cheese particles all over the countertop and floor - great fun for dogs!
Espresso
< D&R real far real fast >
I’ve never known a big wedge of real parmigiano reggiano to need cellulose powder. It’s always ready for the grater and lasts forever, not that it ever is allowed to hang around long at the pug house . . .
What pugluvr said! You really oughta try some of the good stuff. It’s so much better that the extra effort is really worth it. It tastes better, and it actually melts, as opposed to just becoming sodden.
Ooo, I forgot. You can also scrape off big curls from the wedge with a potato peeler and put them on your salad. At least, I hear you can; I always eat the curls before they get onto the salad. Can’t do that with the green can.
Wow, I’m impressed–it only took one reply for the food snobs to hijack this thread.:rolleyes:
Really? I eat pasta a lot, but, I always thought, not often enough to get the real stuff; I’m always afraid it’ll go bad, like all the other cheese I buy. How long does it take?
And I still stand by my rant: if you’re going to add an ingredient to a product for a specific purpose, make sure it actually does what it’s supposed to do! (Comments to the contrary like Maxxie’s notwithstanding…)
ya know, one time i was eating chili at a place that didnt have the pre-grated parmesan (or any real, natch) to put on it, so i had to scrounge for an alternative.
the answer???
artifical creamer!!!
it tasted better, and it made the chili much richer! it also probably took about 2 months off my lifespan 
I knew exactly what you were talking about from the subject. Made me go ‘huh’ as well.
I would love to buy fresh parmesan - not currently in the budget. sigh.
I draw the line at buying pregrated cheddar or mozza, though. Yeesh.
**Leaper ** asked,
It is a long-lived cheese, because it is drier, harder, and saltier than most cheeses, but this, my friend, is a question I cannot accurately answer. Real parmigiano does a rapid disappearing act at the pug house, as it may well do at the Leaper house, should you start indulging. Once you have tasted the fabulosity that is real parmigiano reggiano, you will find excuses to put it on top of just about anything. Garlic toast - salad - canned lentil soup - meatball sandwiches - mashed potatoes - and the best of all, lots of it on fettucine with a big drizzle of heavy cream.
We get it at Costco by the two-pound chunk.
I can tell you Leaper that I only buy hunks of parmesan when they are on the sell off cheap because about to fly past use-by date shelves due to the frightening price of the real stuff. I have never had parmisan go off despite this habit of mine developed through poverty. I can still be eating it months after it supposedly will kill me with no reduction in flavour or growing of mould or noticable other ickyness such as dryness. I could not nor would I do that with softer cheeses but hard cheeses seem to go on until I am down to the last scraping.
I seem to have not managed to die young.
Just double bag it if you don’t want your fridge stunk out and I second the peeler idea but get one just for cheese, I find my cheese peeler is useless on potatoes and vice versa.