It’s worked for and on me
Which cheese fascinates you the most? And is there a fascination type? Are cow milk blue cheeses more fascinating than goat milk cheeses?
An aged cheddar has a fascinating complexity. Give me cheeses old enough to have gained wisdom
o7
The prophecy was true!
This better not awaken anything in me
Too late
Sigh… unzips pants
These images are almost perfectly arousing, they just need to get rid of the lady and I’ll be at full mast
Well, I’m not going to not daydream that maybe my little piece of parmesean came from one of those wheels. That’s a lot of cheese - it’s not like they’re going to just throw that out.
I’ve read that in Parma the cheese is so valuable they essentially have banks that hold the cheese for people. I’m almost wondering if this cheese was her payment for the marketing gig.
Would be a shame not to share that cheese with the world. In the states I’ve seen full wheels go for about $1k.
Time to buy some swiss cheese
There seems to be a strategically placed hand blocking a parmesan grinder, probably for the best. But seriously, the other photo of her smiling and hugging the cheese like a giant stuffed animal is somehow heartwarming. It’s cheese, brain. Thousands of dollars of fancy cheese.
And she’s looking at the camera in a way that says, “I know you looked there.”
Why does the website have this section? I am dying of laughter.
perfetta
So the money of Big Parma is behind her
Average vegetarian
Guilty as charged. I would absolutely devour that wheel.
My daughter would too, but she’s lactose intolerant. She still eats cheese, but not as much as she would if she wasn’t.
Original Parmesan cheese is lactose free after 12 months of seasoning (good ones are generally 24-48 months). The one in the picture says 2012, so it’s safe to assume that your daughter can eat the whole wheel and not be affected by the lactose intolerance at all!
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Most hard cheeses don’t have much lactose
I know, I have that genetic flaw too, I just don’t let it slow my cheese consumption. I do like the hard cheeses for that reason though.
She’s a cheese-ist! Get her!
I was sad to learn Parmesan isn’t vegetarian :(
I was wondering why:
Calf rennet is used, which comes from the stomach of slaughtered calves.
The dairy industry and the meat industry are two sides of the same coin.
Hope they use the same ones they did for veal.
They use the ones that are culled for making milk. Bunch of male calves that the dairy industry has no use for. They’re not raised for meat because they’re not as cost effective to feed as beef cattle. Gotta keep getting the cow pregnant to keep making milk.
the vast majority of make calves are brought to full weight before slaughter.
It’s kind of funny, having the calves slaughtered to get the milk that is naturally meant for them is considered vegetarian (as long as you personally don’t eat the veal).
If they’re kept on abusive factory farms, that’s still vegetarian.
When the dairy cows gets their throats slit because milk production drops below profitablity after ~5 years, the milk is still seen as vegetarian (as long as someone else buys the meat).
No matter how much death and suffering takes place at the farm, the milk is seen as vegetarian. But at rennet, that’s where they draw the line.
Oof, thanks for this.
True! Forgot about that
As a man of Italian heritage, I find this incredibly appealing on several levels
America: I’m sponsored by soulless corporate conglomerates.
Italy: I’m sponsored by cheese!
America: tears up and salutes Italy
I mean, those cheeses are also big global conglomerates and they take it a step further by gatekeeping the name of their cheeses.
Why is this worse than standard conglomerate practices? It’s effectively a brand name, no?
Less a brand name because multiple companies can make parmigiano reggiano, but it’s a combination of requirements designed to protect local industry - for example, for it to be parmigiano reggiano cheese it has to be made with one of two lists of three ingredients, the milk has to come from cows from a specific region of Italy, a certain percentage of the feed for those cows must come from a specific region of Italy, is aged for a certain minimum time, etc, etc. It’s an entire set of industries protected by a legal definition of a cheese.
When you see “parmesan” instead of “parmigiano reggiano” it’s a similar sort of cheese that isn’t made within the legally protected definition. Most often it’s just not made in the one specific part of Italy with milk from cows from that part of Italy fed by feed from that part of Italy, it’s made somewhere else using dairy that doesn’t have to be imported. Or it’s aged “enough” for the flavors to develop but not the full time required. Or both.
There are a whole array of product designations in the EU that basically exist to protect individual agricultural industries from competition by requiring that products be made in a certain place, or using products from a certain place in order to prevent outsiders from duplicating the product, increasing supply and driving down prices.
Basically the same logic as “if it’s not from the Champagne wine region in France it’s just sparkling white wine.” Also the same reason why “real” balsamic vinegar costs a fucking fortune.
Sort of the old medieval guild system to prevent competition and keep prices high.
Not really. It doesn’t really prevent competition. You’re welcome to make your own cheese (or whatever) that competes with the protected variant. You’re just not allowed to call it the same thing.
It’s more like a measure to prevent shitty corporate cost cutting and skimpflation strategies from ruining a thing into oblivion and ensuring that you can rely on a certain level of quality that is associated with the traditional product.
The system might have it’s downsides, but I’m definitely on board with the intent.
Wisconsin salutes with both hands
Well roughly 60% might.
How is Wisconsin holding the cheese?
They happen to also be known for their sausages.
They’d make all their money back if they auctioned off those particular wheels
that third wheel will go for millions
and the feet ones too probably
If I were parmesan I’d sponsor her too. She’s the wheel deal.
That’s going to get sold on the internet.
Oh to be a wheel of cheese in the embrace of an Olympic gymnast. Sigh Some dreams will never come true.
How do I get sponsored by cheese? urgent
Are you a beautiful Italian gymnast skilled enough to become an olympian?
no but i can eat a whole box of kraft mac n cheese in one sitting if i try rly hard
can olympians do that? i’ve never seen any of them do it so i will assume not.
Oh yeah, the will 100% annihilate a box of mac and cheese. Like, just devour. Like it’s nothing.
It’s unreal, they consume an absolutely absurd amount of calories. Some athletes expend enough in a day to power most of us for almost a week.
They will take that box and turn it into a bunch of backflips or something wild.
is that how they get the cheese sponsorship??
plz i need to know
That one is a mystery to me I’m afraid.
I’ll have to check the rule book but as someone who knows extremely little about Parmesan cheese (other than the fact that is fucking delicious), I would say you have promise and will go far in the cheese universe.
Did you know those wheels sweat oil? I hope they were wiped down before. And after, I guess.
They’re fake, made of plastic
I really doubt that… Why would they go through the cost of producing a plastic version of their product when they could simply use the actual article? I worked in a cheese shop for years, these particular wheels are VERY durable - I legitimately can’t think of any benefit in using a fake cheese wheel, aside from TheTetrapod’s correct comment about these wheels sweating oil (which makes most people’s skin breakout into acne) which can be easily and immediately solved by using a rag.
edit: and again, having worked closely with this exact cheese many many many times, that is exactly what they look like as whole wheels. I have zero reason to believe this is plastic.
I’m Italian, those prop cheese wheels are pretty common, for store displays and such. Google “Forma parmigiano plastica” and you’ll find a lot of them.
