
The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could Be Wood - avirambm
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-16/the-parmesan-cheese-you-sprinkle-on-your-penne-could-be-wood
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creshal
> _German brewers protect their reputations with Reinheitsgebot, a series of
> purity laws first drawn up 500 years ago, and Champagne makers prohibit most
> vineyards outside their turf from using the name._

This is codified in EU law as Protected Designation of Origin:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_indications_and_t...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_indications_and_traditional_specialities_in_the_European_Union#Protected_designation_of_origin_.28PDO.29)

Parmesan _is_ protected by it, as are lots of other cheeses. Parmesan-alikes
are sold under different names to avoid lawsuits (leading to interesting brand
names like "Rapesan" here in Austria).

It's surprising the USA does not have similar laws.

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toast0
The US doesn't participate in the protection of geographical names because it
reduces competitiveness of local industries. For better or worse, these names
have become generic, a wine maker can't be expected to write "a bubbly wine
made in the style of the champagne region, made from grapes bred in the
region", you just write champagne on the bottle and don't export to the EU.

Also, most of our placenamed foods are not really transportable: New York
pizza, Boston cream pie, philly cheese steak, etc.

~~~
wodenokoto
There is a common, generic alternative word for champagne: "Sparkling wine",
so your example is really far-fetched.

Meanwhile, several alternatives have had success with their own name, such as
Cava.

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DanBC
Sparkling wine might not have been made with the champagne method, and some
people think that's important.

Cava uses the champagne method; prosecco uses Metodo Martinotti. Some wines
just use injected carbon dioxide.

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brbsix
This isn't very surprising. Nearly all crumbled or shredded cheeses seem to be
using cellulose (or something like it) at the very least to prevent clumping.
I've always suspected it would be more succeptible to adulteration. Even more
reason to buy it in block form.

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tonyarkles
Am I just tired? Or do these two lines side-by-side imply that there's
actually cheese that's 100% made of wood?

"The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could be Wood" "Some brands
promising 100% purity contained no Parmesan at all"

(Later on in the article it explained that it's because some labelled Parmesan
were actually mixtures of mozza and swiss, but I definitely was expecting to
read about 100% wood pulp cheese-like products!)

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Nihilartikel
Life is too short for crappy hard-cheese. I can't think of a good reason to
buy the pre-grated stuff. Not even convenience. Especially considering that it
takes a such a long time to spoil. Just get a nice-ish grater and a block of
the good stuff. 20 seconds of effort for something that actually has more
flavor and subtlety than a sweat sock.

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DanBC
> Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Great Value 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese registered
> 7.8 percent

I don't get how that's legal.

~~~
solipsism
It's fully grated, isn't it?

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hwstar
Instead of fines and prison, let's bring back a modern form of the pillory for
the CEO's of these companies. Build a cage in the town square and put these
executives on display for a few hours with a sign out front stating the
crime(s) they committed.

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ganassa
What you U.S. citizens miss is that the real Parmigiano Reggiano is made in a
very small area of North Italy, with a very specific combination of grass,
terrain, weather and manufacturing that make that unique feature you can't
find anywhere else in the world. Just for example: if you move just a few
kilometers outside that area, taste changes so much that, despite you are
still in Italy, what you produce can't be called "Parmigiano" but, instead,
will be "Grana Padano", will cost about half the price, and will substantially
change the flavour of your food. So, please don't call that yellowish
substance "italian cheese", that's not. It's american product or, if you
prefer, fake food. Wood-based or not.

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PhantomGremlin
No shortage of the real stuff here.
[http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/department/article/parmigian...](http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/department/article/parmigiano-
reggiano)

I don't buy it very often because IIRC it's about $25 a pound. It's even more
expensive than that, because the rind isn't edible _.

edit: _I don't think that adding the rind to soup or stew qualifies as
"edible". It won't kill you, but I'm not going to make stew just to use it up.

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mcv
Bizarre. Surely you'd notice the difference between Parmesan and wood? Or
Cheddar? Cheddar is great, but a totally different kind of cheese than
Parmesan.

But I have heard that many frozen cheese pizzas use fake cheese. Even in
Europe. Because the ingredients used for fake cheese are in the pizza anyway,
and if you put just a bit of cheese on it you can still put it on the label.
The ingredients aren't false, but the stuff that looks like cheese isn't all
cheese.

We grate our own Parmesan, but we don't make our own pizzas.

~~~
wodenokoto
wood pulp.

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emodendroket
The headline's a bit misleading.

