So I love a good spaghetti dinner with the SO. I like to sprinkle a little grated parmesan on top before digging in. My SO, on the other hand, likes oodles of parmesan atop his serving.
Well, I’ve been noticing this for a while, hope I’m not the only one. When I’m washing up the dishes later, the tines of his fork are way encrusted with parmesan that has undergone a sort of transformation. What started as grated cheese has now welded itself onto the fork tines.
It’s stuck on like barnacles. I literally have to scrape it with something to get it off.
Has anyone else noticed this?
What’s happening to it that it should become like having plaque removed at the dentist?
It’s cheese. It melts and cools just like any other cheese. However, it’s a firm cheese so it’s not as gooey. Thereby, it’s harder to chisel from the fork after it has done it’s melt-cool cycle. Try this with a softer, oily cheese like Cheddar, and it won’t be so difficult.
Or, you could do the same experiment with Velveeta. No, wait, we’re supposed to be talking about cheese here.
One of my favorite “made-it-up-myself” recipes is a Chicken Provencale-type dish that I throw a quarter cup or so of parmesan into at the end to thicken up the sauce, and add some nuttiness to the flavor. It’s amazing to watch the hard crumbly stuff turn into this gooey, stringy mess in the hot pan. You would hardly think it could melt like that, but it does.
And yes, the pan is a nightmare afterwards, but well worth it!
Paul