Parmesan Cheese--The Rind

Cafe Society
1

So, I don’t eat the rind when I eat parmesan cheese.

Having tried it, finding it practically inedible, I didn’t figure I was supposed to eat it.

But the other day I was looking around in an upscale grocery store, and all of their parmesan cheese was completely brown–exactly the color of the rind.

I didn’t buy any (it was stupid expensive) so I don’t know what it tasted like, but from the look of it it was literally all rind.

So… what’s the dope here? Rind is not to be eaten, right? If so, why was that cheese all rindy lookin’?

-FrL-

2

You can eat the rind. In fact, many people find it quite good.

3

Interesting. To me it seems tasteless and waxy. (Though I don’t think it is in fact wax as the rind is on many other cheeses. Or maybe it is?)

Do you know whether the all-brown Parmesan cheese I saw would indeed have been just like rind all the way through? Is something like this sold?

-FrL-

4

As you thought, the rind on parm is simply really hard cheese. It’s okay (safe) to eat, but often it is just too hard if you are eating it by the chunk (as opposed to grating it on something). However, it does break down if you’re cooking with it, so I keep the rind if I’m putting it in something that is going in the oven.

How brown are we talking about here? There’s a subset of parmigiano called vacche - it’s yellowy-tan through the whole cheese. It comes from a special kind of cow. (And I’d guess you would be likely to find this in an fancy-pants grocery store.) A lot of parms that are aged longer will be more tan overall, I would say a color like toast, and they are also sharper tasting.

I might spend too much time thinking about cheese.

5

Heretic. There is no such “too much time”.

6

I agree.

I don’t eat the rind either. Occasionally I will soften it in the microwave, scrape off and eat the part that gets gooey. Most often, though, I cut up the rind into pieces and give it to my extremely spoiled dogs. It’s their treat of treats.

7

Was it a single block of cheese or a bunch of little pieces? The stores here will bundle up a bunch of parm ends and sell them on a discount for folks who use the ends to flavor a soup or sauce-just bang it in whole and let it steep.

If a single block, hmmm, must find and try.

8

Most of the darker parmesans I have tried have been more intensely flavored, crumbly, harder, and had detectable separate rinds on the edge. It can grated. The body of the cheese is not like rinds.

9

My wife is one of the foremost cheese experts in the world. She gets sent out to scout the new ones to bring into the U.S. and the is the only female inductee into an elite 500 year old French cheese fraternity. The food magazines call her when they need an expert opinion. I just asked her and she says that you don’t eat the rind. As noted above, you can grate it if you just want to use it for something.

10

In some recipies, Ive seen the rind thrown into like a stew-like device, giving flavor to it… sort of like a bone or bayleaf or something.