Is Parmigiano Reggiano actually worth it?

today I want to answer a question that I've started to wonder about every time I walk up to the cheese counter at the store is parmigiano reggiano actually worth it because when compared to the parmesan products you can find it's always the most expensive so in today's video we're going to do a deep dive into the world of Parmesan cheese I purchased five different parmesan products at varying price points researched into how these are made and regulated before running them through various fairmints so we can get to the bottom of this because I just like you have heard countless confusing things over the years for example you may have heard fake parmesan will Clump up and be grainy so you should always buy the real stuff or maybe you have questions like what do people even mean by real or fake parmesan is the green bottle of pre-graded stuff can be made out of cheese or parmesan and Parmigiano-Reggiano the same thing and how do I know if I'm getting parm red from Italy or maybe the most important of all can you actually taste a difference from a us-made Parmesan versus one that is from Italy now I'm someone who has happily spent my money on the 21 per pound for the imported Italian the past couple of years so this is actually an answer I'm not sure I even won but I've opened Pandora's box of this fascinating story of the cheese that Italy's cheese Consortium calls one of the most counterfeited and imitated cheeses in the world [Music] my goal with this video is to arm you with all the knowledge and terms out there so you know exactly what every parmesan product is offering in order to make a nuanced decision based on your unique situation as a home cook for example does it make more sense to blow the budget on dop parm and get cheap tomatoes and pasta or should I get the nice tomatoes and pasta and maybe settle for one of the cheaper us-made parm options now before we break it down thank you to Rocket mortgage for sponsoring today's episode so while I'm cooking I almost am always watching a YouTube video on the side and thank you to today's sponsor rocket mortgage I have a new series to binge and no it's actually not a series of videos where you learn about mortgages it's a series that does deep dives into fascinating houses and it's called Home lore the most recent episode took a look at a retired kitchen train car that actually fed troops during World War II and has now been converted into a fully functional tiny home and I love these types of videos looking at interesting living spaces so if that sounds like YouTube head over to the rocket learn YouTube channel to check out this video and many other really cool episodes and thank you again for sponsoring this part of the video now we will get into the candidates and the testing shortly but I think it makes most sense to actually start this video with how parmesan style cheese is made in the first place because surprisingly enough all five of these products do use the same main three ingredients which is milk salt and cheese cultures this chart from on food and cooking explains how a variety of common cheeses are made and if we take a look parmesan like a lot of other cheeses is first coagulated into curds with a rennet and then that curd is cut and heated to release more way before being firmly pressed into a wheel where it is then aged until being broken and it's used for our sauces soups or pastas now that being said it's really easy to see and taste the differences between these products especially when they are raw which again we'll get to shortly but at a high level these do generally go through the same process that leads you with a salty and drier cheese that we all know and love [Music] now what if I told you that if these five products were being sold in Europe somewhere that four of them would actually be considered counterfeit and this leads me to a question that I've always had is there a difference between something labeled parmesan versus Parmigiano-Reggiano and after looking into it to that I would say it kind of depends on where you are so let's back up and do a brief history on Parmigiano-Reggiano and explain the exact specifications that this cheese must go through according to the Italian cheese consortiums website parmigiano-reggiano's Origins started over 1 000 years ago in the Middle Ages with the same three ingredients they use today milk salt and rennet the cheese was primarily made in the Amelia Romania region of Italy and it got its name from two cities in this region Parma and Reggio Emilia now what's crazy is that as far back as 1612. 160 years before the U.S was even a thing the cheese already was starting to be regulated with a deed signed by the Duke of Parma that defined the places where cheese called from Parma could actually come from as the Parmigiano-Reggiano moved into modern times this designation was expanded and in 1934 the dairies in the region of Italy agreed they needed a mark of origin for their cheese and now today as part of the European Union if you want a cheese to be considered and stamped as legit Parmigiano-Reggiano there is an extremely specific location and process in which it must be made now all the specification that this cheese must go through in order to be titled Parmigiano-Reggiano is actually all summed up in a single document from the official European Union pdo-it-02202 titled Parmigiano-Reggiano and and last updated November 11 2016. now I'll link this document below because it's actually just a really interesting read through because it does have some very specific measures for example you have the basic ones like the three ingredients that must be used where it come from the size of the wheel and things like that but then it goes even deeper for example there are some notes like the cyclopropane fatty acid ratio has to be less than 22 milligrams per 100 grams of fat and 75 percent of the food that the cow itself eats actually has to be produced within the same geographic area so those cows better not be munching on any grass grown in France so this outlines exactly what something labeled Parmigiano-Reggiano is but what does it mean if something is labeled parmesan and this is where the it depends comes in the word parmesan is the English translation of Parmigiano-Reggiano and for every country in the European Union if you see a cheese that is labeled parmesan at a shop in say France or Germany it is Parmigiano-Reggiano meaning it was made in Italy and upholds all the standards and this was made in a ruling where it is noted that the term parmesan is an evocation or extension of Parmigiano-Reggiano and this is where it's kind of interesting to me because say someone made a wheel of cheese exactly how you would make parmigiano reggiano like down to the tea they got it looking the same they met all the requirements of moisture levels fat levels the Aging maturity and all that but the only thing they changed is that they made it with cows that were from Germany now in this case even the most Discerning Italian may not even be able to tell in a blind taste test but just because that is so this cheese still cannot be legally labeled as parmesan in the European Union and I was trying to find out some more on this because the EU actually sued Berlin back in 2004 for not upholding the name of Parmesan and this blog from 2016 also mentions that some French restaurants will use imitation parmesans but I want to know what they call them since the words parmesan or Parmigiano-Reggiano can not be used on the cheese label anyway so why did I give all this background well because in the United States the words Parmigiano-Reggiano are still protected in labeling but the word parmesan is not and this is the exact same thing with how in the U.S we use the word champagne to generically refer to sparkling wines but in the European Union if a bottle is labeled champagne it must to be the specific sparkling wine from the champagne in France so while the European Union would consider these four to be counterfeit parmesan this is perfectly legal labeling in the U.S and the FDA actually does have some documentation about things labeled parmesan but the restrictions are way way less and this brings me to my next question how can you ensure you are getting the real parmigiano reggiano in a U.S grocery store again the name is protected so in the United States it's actually really easy to figure out especially compared to that canned tomato market so first just take a look at the name if it's labeled parmigiano reggiano it is the legit stuff if you see it's labeled parmesan just assume that it is made with milk or processed in the U.S now the name should be enough but Additionally you can check for the dop stamp on the cheese packaging and further if you buy a hunk with the Ryan still attached a last check that you can do is to check the needle stamp that will also say parmish reggiano there are definitely some pros and cons to kind of the EU versus the US regulation approach for example the EU approach would kind of be like saying in the U.S Wisconsin is going to be the only state allowed to produce and label cheddar cheese even though Vermont and Cabot Creamery may make really great tasting cheddar cheese they're going to have to label it something else so very interesting to think about but it's a whole separate conversation kind of way above me but what I want to answer in this video is given the current landscape and options of Parmesan style cheeses in the U.S is Parmigiano-Reggiano actually worth it so to do this we still need to explain some terms and actually how cheese in general works but let's just hop into the first of three taste tests and welcome in the candidates that I chose first we have two pre-graded options these are one the classic green bottle and then secondly a higher end 60 18-month pre-graded version before moving into the whole wedges for these I have a 12 month aged U.S domestic a 20-month age U.S domestic and lastly a whole block of the 24-month Parmigiano-Reggiano from Italy and up to now we've touched on the history regulation and common labeling semantics but none of that information really helps us answer the original question so let's start putting stuff to actual practice and this is where I think it gets fun because there are three important areas to consider and have in mind as we go through these taste tests number one flavor does Parmigiano-Reggiano have a significantly better flavor compared to the parmesan Alternatives and then secondly is food properties does it have advantageous food properties such as a higher fat content does it melt better or do those additives in the us-made parms make any difference and then lastly is lifestyle consideration how is it going to be used for example the recommendation may change depend on what we are using it for such as a shaved garnish for a salad or sprinkling over some pizza or if we're going to end up using it in some pasta sauce like an alfredo or carbonara and for me I chose three tests that you also can easily replicate at home and I would recommend trying it because they're just pretty fun but with that being said let's hop into taste test number one so for this raw taste test all I did was grate the blocks of Parmesan that I had and then also spooned out some of those pre-rated ones blindfolded myself and had Gabe give me a small spoonful of each one and spoiler it's pretty easy to tell the differences here I mean that one's good really good nice and creamy kind of really melted on the tongue also very good but also melted on the tongue that one a little bit drier and a little bit a little bit more intense wow that one is super powdery which I'm guessing that's got to be one of the pre-rated ones like there's no there's no wet it's definitely one of the pre-graded one it didn't melt like on my tongue like easily it definitely like kind of coated everywhere it was like super powdery feels like they forced you like like parmesan flavor in it almost that that one's definitely like again melts on the tongue very very close to the second one that I tasted like so the first one I tasted that one was much more mellow this the second and now this is the fourth one those are very similar in flavor this one I'm gonna assume it's the the higher end graded one so pebbled up in my mouth and it didn't melt like the um number uh one two and four those ones like melted like in my mouth whereas three and now five like I definitely noticed kind of like little pebbly bits dop and then yeah so this was a super interesting test and it was really obvious like picking up on the differences just blindfolded and using your senses these three absolutely just melted in my mouth I could 100 tell that these were not the pre-graded ones because these kind of this one was super powdery this one was like not as powdery but like you definitely kind of lingered like the little the little pieces lingered in my mouth and then I could definitely taste the flavor differences too where the 12 month was much more mellow as opposed to you know the 20-month US and the 24-month um dop and then this one was kind of more flavor again like in between these two like as you would expect it's aged in between them and then this one has its like signature kind of flavor that you know but really what I'm interested in now is why did these not disintegrate in my mouth like these ones did so after this test you may be wondering why does the Aged parmesans taste so much better than the younger ones and secondly why did the pre-graded versions kind of Linger on my tongue and give a weird texture and to begin to understand and evaluate these things we need to go through the four main variables that differentiate in how the US and Italy makes their parmesan cheese these four variables are one the Aging time two pasteurized milk versus raw milk three additives versus zero additives and then for the geography cow's diet and cheese making process and when broken down into your US versus EU Palm table it begins to show the differences in the actual makeup of these cheeses and I want to start with aging first because I think this is the most important decision you'll have to make as a home cook navigating the grocery store because when it comes to cheese in general aging has a massive effect on both the taste and texture of the final product so the official Italian Parmigiano-Reggiano must be aged for at least 12 months and keep in mind that that's after almost the month-long brining process that gives the porn wheels that beautiful hard rind which you actually don't find on most domestic versions now while the minimum aging time is just 12 months it can go all the way up to 24 36 40 or even up to 100 months if you wanted there's actually no maximum maturation time as listed on that official website and if you are in Italy you'll be able to find a full range of aged parms really easily but in a U.S grocery store that's not the case now I'm not sure of the exact numbers here but the most common imported parmigiano reggiano is going to be the 24 month age one there's likely some cost-benefit analysis done by the stores unless a particular store happened to order something special now it's a completely different story when it comes to aging times in the United States based on this title 21 from the FDA last update in 1993 the minimum aging time for something labeled parmesan is 10 months and most of the U.S made parmesans I found at the store were 10 or 12 months but you can find some us-made brands that will age their cheeses is for 20 or 24 months but anecdotally they're a little bit hard to find it took me like four or five grocery stores before I actually got my hands on one and in general if you have tried any aged cheeses you know that they're drastically different than the minimum age counterpart for example a young cheddar versus an age one a 10 month parm versus a 24 month parm is going to be very very different and at a high level two things happen when cheese is aging one cheese cultures continue to transform lactose into lactic acid and then secondly the cheese will begin to lose more moisture and both of these processes intensify the flavor of the cheese and also change the texture which you can easily see with your eyes and in general the younger aged cheese is going to be the mildest in flavor but it's also going to have a higher moisture percentage and a lower melting temperature when compared to the longer aged parmesan cheeses and I'm staying pretty surface level here there's a lot more science that goes into cheese making and the Aging of cheese in general but let's move on to variable number two and that is the milk because I bet a cheese maker would tell me right now that it doesn't matter how long you are aging your cheese in the first place if you are starting with bad milk and when it comes to the milk used in the Italian parmesan cheese that is always going to be raw milk so in general the United States is very conservative when it comes to food safety so for any mass-produced dairy products U.S dairy farms are typically going to pasteurize their milk by heating it to a specific temperature for a set amount of time and this process kills off harmful bacteria that could potentially cause disease which is a good thing but the only bad thing about this is that all bacteria is not bad for you or will cause disease and this process also kills off the bacteria that is partly responsible for developing flavor in the aging and lactic acid fermentation process now in Italy on the other hand it is mandated that Parmigiano-Reggiano is a hard cheese made from raw cow's milk meaning the milk cannot be pasteurized beforehand and the small highly regulated Italian operations can keep a close eye on the cheese to make sure that any harmful bacteria are not ending up in the final product now if you've ever tasted raw milk you know that it tastes way different from the stuff that you get at the store but that being said it is kind of hard to quantify exactly how much of a difference this makes because if you try the 24 versus the 20 month aged ones like yeah they taste different but both are still pretty good so it's kind of hard to say exactly which thing makes the most difference and with that being said let's move on to variable number three and that is the additives by definition Parmesan reggiano can only contain the three ingredients we talked about earlier U.S cheese companies on the other hand might mix in preservatives or enzymes to ensure that their product is safe for mass production make sure it passes FDA regulation or has a long enough shelf life to be profitable at the grocery store and on a us-made Parmesan there are about four potential ingredients that you could see added to the ingredient list this is one cellulose two potassium sorbate three nanomycin and fourthly is enzymes now these are all grade additives you know passed by the USDA and they're in a variety of products but really the question is do these additives significantly affect the taste and texture and short one yeah they do when I added 30 grams of each of the grated parmesans to a 275 degree pan every single one of them melted with the exception of the green bottle it kind of just browned and got brittle it never really melted at all and this is just kind of weird which may lead you to wonder why is this parmesan cheese from the bottle not melting and I actually think this is due to a variety of factors number one a lack of moisture number two a lack of fat number three a tight protein structure of the cheese before being grated and these might partially be caused by one adding cellulose powder and two adding potassium sorbate so let's talk about these cellulose powder is a common anti-caking agent that is typically added to grated shredded or shaved parms to keep them from clumping up and it does a good job now this alone won't stop cheese from melting because the other pre-graded parm has cellulose powder added as well but it melted just fine when I added the 30 grams of it to the pan but I do suspect that this is what caused the green bottle and the pre-graded parm to kind of Linger on my tongue in the raw taste test because cellulose is insoluble in water next we have potassium sorbate and natomycin which are both common food additives that prevent the growth of molds and yeast and generally are going to extend the shelf life and protect the flavor of the cheese and then lastly we have the general enzymes and I'm not actually entirely sure what this is I tried to look in a little bit deeper so I could use some help here but in general most us-made parms will list both cheese cultures and enzymes on the ingredient list and I assume that cheese cultures is referring to the rennet that is used to make the cheese but enzyme also seems to be a generic term used when describing rennet as well so maybe there are some additional enzymes that are added to the parmesan cheese process maybe to make up for the fact that it is pasteurized milk that potentially has lost some of those good flavor making bacteria but if anyone knows for sure just let us know down in the comments and in general after reading into these a lot of Articles or videos may tell you to steer clear of the cellulose powder or anti-caking agents if you want to get a smooth and creamy sauce but as I discovered in the Alfredo test well not perfectly smooth it can definitely still be done and it comes down to the technique used to actually make the sauce in the first place and we're going to get to that Alfredo test in just one second but lastly let's go through the fourth main variable which is kind of a catch-all for a variety of things so the geography cow's diet and cheese processing likely make a difference but it is hard to objectively quantify exactly how much of a difference for example the geography and land of Reggio Emilia plays a role in the cow's diet since 75 percent of the dry matter they eat must be from the region and additionally silage which is a fermented preserved grass that is commonly used in the U.S for cows is completely banned in Italy then lastly they've been making parmigiano in Italy for over a thousand years at this point so if there's anyone who has the process dialed down and regulated to ensure the best possible parmesan cheese is coming out every single time it's gonna be them and it's fair to point out that the U.S market is probably worse for the consumer since there is less regulation around processing and labeling which can lead to a lot more confusion for example they can boast flavor characteristics on the front you can add marketing terms it can be sold in a variety of form factors or they can use any of those additives we just talked about so it's much harder to compare brand to bran in the US May versions now if I was in the European Union making this video it'd probably be much simpler we'd go like over a quick summary of that one page document I served earlier and then we'd just go into the differences between the Aged parmesan reggiano's you know like 12 24 36 and all the way up to see if there's kind of a point of diminishing returns but anyway this is the current landscape that we're working in and kind of why I decided to make this video so with that being said I still want to know what are these actual differences we can see what they tasted like raw but what about used in a sauce am I still able to pick up all this up what about used for a garnish in pizza or pasta so with that being said let's start with taste test number two and that is the traditional Alfredo test for this test I did the traditional three ingredient fettuccine alburo so I made the cheese sauce with 25 grams of butter 60 grams of each parmesan product and starchy pasta water to make each I added the butter over medium heat along with the pasta water and emulsified those together once mixed I turn the heat down to low and very important you you need to keep the temperature below 160 degrees Fahrenheit or else that cheese will seize up and get stringy as you add it and like I mentioned earlier the younger aged parmesan cheeses are going to have a slightly lower melting point due to having more moisture and a looser protein structure so for these I actually had to turn it down to 150 degrees Fahrenheit just to be on the safe side and I've outlined the food science behind all this stuff in a kacho a Pepe video I did a few months back and that was really the only way I was successfully able to make each of these three ingredient sauces with the five parmesan products now once the sauces were made I mixed them with fresh cooked hot fettuccine to Sauce them together then I blindfolded myself and had them mix up so I did not know which is which and I'll tell you right now I had a tough time with this taste test comparison put the Alfredo behind the the container yeah all right so we'll start left and this one's right okay foreign that one was solid I would say not too strong tasty to parm but I mean solid I feel like the texture on that one was really nice oh they're both good I would say that one was a little bit stronger tasting but it also's got a little bit of a weird aftertaste [Music] man I'm I'm getting these like all confused up [Music] and that one's pretty good too all right this is these are way harder than I thought they would be to differentiate from [Music] I don't know if it's good or bad but definitely stronger tasting this one is three that one a little bit more mellow I don't know there's one where I would say clearly it's terrible and I don't know if there's one where I'd be like this is the best thing ever though three and five were definitely stronger tasting in my opinion I'm just gonna see I'm really curious I honestly have no idea foreign wow that was super interesting dude so like that's what I said like these were very strong tasting but like I didn't know if they were better but like they're I'm lost like I'm absolutely lost on all these I don't even know what to think very interesting do you guys want to try the like I'm I'm like actually like kind of baffled like I had no idea like absolutely no idea so after seeing these clips you might have some questions so we're gonna go through them first can I make a sauce with all five parmesan products the answer to that is yes but are there differences in how they distribute throughout the sauce and this is also a yes so the green bottle is noticeably grainy since like we showed earlier it doesn't really melt and additionally the younger aged parmesans have a slightly lower melting point so they are more prone to melt together resulting in that stringy sauce but only if your liquid is too hot and again that goes back to the technique because I can make a stringy cheese sauce with real Italian parmigiana reggiano if I want to but anyway the third question is where we run into issues so is there a noticeable flavor difference in the sauces and surprisingly not really it was honestly super hard to tell the differences between them once the cheese was dispersed among the butter pasta water and pasta itself and the only clear marker that I said was the two pre-graded options tasted stronger and I didn't articulate this well in the taste test but I didn't say they tasted better or more flavorful because what I meant by stronger is that they tasted saltier which makes sense because on the nutrition label the green bottle has double the amount of sodium per a 10 gram serving when compared to the other options now fourth this may make you wonder so if it was hard to tell the difference between the Alfredo sauces does this mean that maybe I should not be buying Parmesan reggiano for alfredo sauce and to this I would say no think about it if you make a sauce with one part butter and two parts cheese of any kind it's probably gonna taste fairly good but I think the main reason why I had such a tough time differentiating between these five was because I didn't add any garnishes to the pasta themselves now I did this completely on purpose because I wanted to taste the sauces on the merits of these sauces themselves I didn't want to be influenced by a fresh raw grating of any of the parms over the top because again I did that test prior alone and then secondly the third test is all about the garnishes so let's dive into those so for my last taste test I did two garnish tests for both pasta and pizza and for the pasta I tried to balance out the sodium levels so I made one mother batch of red pasta by adding some sauce to a pan tossing in a little bit of cream and then adding cooked penne so those could get to know each other before pushing them out into five dishes and next I added the parm in varying amounts before mixing them up and doing the whole blindfold thing and here are some of my thoughts foreign pretty good and obviously I can tell yes it's the one one of them that I graded that is the advantage of being able to use a block you can get that kind of micrograded form that one pretty solid I'd say maybe a little bit mellower than number one that's this one's definitely stronger than number two number three noticeably stronger than number two that one kind of just like tastes generic to me not bad but just kind of just kind of myth [Music] that one is okay that one might be the green bottle fight I guess it kind of had like that green bottle taste number three I would say it was definitely the strongest and probably my favorite of the two I think mellow strong stronger and then this Ford tasted kind of generic five tasted I think that one might be the green bottle one but let's just give it a c we have the 20 month the 12-month the dop [Music] the pre-graded and then the green bottle which yeah makes sense and as you could guess this garnish test definitely fell much more in line with the raw taste test that we did firsthand now secondly I did want to do one more garnish mainly because I was just in the mood for some pizza so for this test I bought one massive slice and cut it into roughly equal sized bites and then added each of the five parmesans and again the dop definitely shine but to be fair the 20 month aged U.S parm was also quite good that was pretty good no no that was fine that was pretty good [Music] it was pretty strong tasting too I feel like definitely a sharper flavor a little bit sharper than number one I would say [Music] this one also felt like pretty strong tasty two and three-ish felt stronger tasting than number one I feel like these middle three honestly like all just tasted really good to me maybe number one was like a little bit Milder foreign this one kind of tastes like pizza I didn't really [Music] porm wasn't too strong on number number five so I think one in five for me were a little bit milder in taste I think two and three were my favorite and then four was probably like a step below two and three so again another raw taste test and again the dop the 20 month the longer aged ones definitely are more concentrated and sharper in flavor and it really does come through especially in these raw applications but again all of these were still delicious in their own right and really that leads me to the final questions how exactly should we shop for parmigiano reggiano okay we finally made it so in conclusion is parmigiano reggiano actually worth it and in short yes I definitely think it is after running through all these tests I will continue to pretty much exclusively be buying parmigiana reggiano for all of my parmesan needs but I will say that I definitely have a new appreciation and understanding for some of the us-made products for example that 20 month parmesan was actually quite good and additionally I have some real life examples of when you may want to use some of these other products for one I'm not going to throw the green bottle away I'm just going to keep it in my fridge as a safeguard since it has a ridiculously long shelf life and just use it sparingly for things like throwing it on popcorn a slice of pizza or maybe just adding it as a salt source to a one pot pasta so when might it make sense to purchase a 10-month Parmesan block or something like this higher end aged grated Parmesan well I think I've got one so say you are making an alfredo or carbonara for a large number of people maybe it's a family you've got some friends coming over what I would recommend if you want to save some money is maybe picking up one of these two for the actual sauce and then getting just a really small block of the dob parm that you can use solely as a garnish to put over kind of your us parm sauce and I don't know who you got coming over but I highly doubt that anyone is going to be able to pick up on the fact that you didn't use an Italian made parmesan in the cheese sauce that being said here are my final tips when it comes to buying parmesan cheese at the grocery store one if it's labeled Parmigiano-Reggiano it is the real deal from Italy and it's most commonly going to be the 24 month age variety now if the cheese is labeled parmesan that means it's likely from the U.S and in that case I would one recommend getting a whole wedge or a block as this will give you the most variety and control over the form factor for example I wouldn't really recommend buying the shreds or shavings if you're making a cheese sauce as they will increase the likelihood of the cheese getting stringy because they don't disperse well in the sauce compared to a finely grated parm secondly take a look at the label to see how long it has been aged choose something aged at least 20 months for the best flavor especially when using them for raw garnishes anyway I hope you now know everything and more than you could possibly want to know about parmesan cheese I know I learned a lot I purchased probably like 150 dollars worth of Parmesan products for this video so hopefully you guys have enjoyed it was a lot of fun to make if you have more ingredients or breakdowns that you want me to make in the style of this video Let Me Down Below let me down below let me know down below it's been a long day that is going to wrap it up for me in this one I will catch you all in the next one peace y'all foreign [Music]

Channel: Ethan Chlebowski

Views: 1,738,717

Keywords: Ethan Chlebowski, Parmigiano Reggiano vs Parmesan, What is parmigiano reggiano, parmigiano reggiano, parmesan, why is parmigiano reggiano expensive, parmesan cheese, taste test, parmigiano-reggiano (cheese), cheese taste test, reggio emilia, parmigiano reggiano pasta, cheese making process, parmigiano reggiano cheese, expensive cheese, how to make cheese, parmigiano reggiano sauce, parmigiano reggiano cheese opening, us parmesan cheese, parmesan vs parmigiano reggiano

Id: PwM0AeB6N8o

Length: 37min 2sec (2222 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 08 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/FrequentlySurly]

Excellent video as always Ethan, thank you! I always learn so much from your offerings. As a quick note to the community (and I am not a Costco employee), you can buy 36 month aged, authentic Parmigiano Reggiano at Costco. Here in Minnesota it is going for $13.49/lb currently and typically packaged in 1.5 to 2.0lb wedges.

[u/BigShoots]

I'm just here to talk about that thumbnail.

As a Canadian, that ginormous hunk of parm he's holding would probably cost me close to $100. Is it really that cheap on the U.S.? And if it is then why in the fuck is it costing me so much here?