Very hard cheese, long-forgotten in the fridge: What to do with it?

[philie]

Hey,

i have forgotten some piece of parmesan in the fridge and it became very hard and oily when touched.

since it is quite a large piece i was wondering if i could use it for a soup or stock or so.

first thing that came to my mind was onion sous.

has anyone experiences and tips?

also, since it is quite annoying but i dont really know how to prevent it, how to store cheese over a longer period of time in the fridge without becoming dry and hard?

thanks so much!

[Ttogull]

I save the rind from Parmesan for long periods of time. As long as it doesn't get moldy, I like to put it into a pot of dried white beans, like flagolet or cannellini. Add to it some nice olive oil and some herbs, and it makes a great pot of beans.

You can use a fair amount of rind because it does not break apart, but the non-rind part will melt (even if it is dry and hard now) so you might want to be careful on the amount.

I have no tips on storage.

[Jaymes]

Dip some cheesecloth into vinegar. Squeeze it out. Wrap your cheese in it and then put it into a plastic bag and store in the fridge.

I also very often freeze cheese.

As to what to do with it now, how about grating it and making some Parmesan Cheese Wafers/Crisps. Basically all you do is to mound the grated cheese into small piles in a skillet or other sort of flat-surfaced grill and heat the cheese until it melts and forms a cheese disc. Then you lift it off and cool and eat. They're good on their own as a snack, or as a garnish for salads, or as a side dish for soup.

There are many, many more specific recipes online, but here's a starting point: http://cookeatshare.com/recipes/crisp-parmesan-cheese-wafers-132047

Edited April 15, 2013 by Jaymes (log)

[slkinsey]

For storage in the refrigerator, I find that putting hard grating cheeses in heavy ziplock bags helps to keep them from drying out. The reality is, however, that these cheeses will dry out and get hard if you have them in there for, say, six months. And the moistness of freshly-cracked Parmigiano-Reggiano won't last all that long after you bring it home no matter what you do.

[naguere]

I keep my cheeses (Parmesan and my cheese of the month) in a small plastic box , the really cheapo kind, they all stay in good

condition, Parmesan for at least a couple of months and my Wenslydale stays moist for a month.

also, most cheese will freeze quite well.

If you have a microplane, that will take care of any hardening.

[Plantes Vertes]

Yes indeed, you can use it in soup and it will be delicious, especially in a minestrone. Any dish with melted cheese will be a fine use for it too. Just shave it into slivers with a chef's knife.

However, the French can also come to the rescue here with Fromage Fort; it's odds and ends of cheese, blended together into a paste with garlic and white wine. You can spread it on tartines or use it as a dip for crudites. Save your old cheese in the freezer until you have a variety and enough to make this.

For a pound of cheese, add 1/2 cup wine, 2TBS fresh chopped herbs and 1/2 clove of garlic, plus a little butter or creme fraiche to soften if needed (depending on the types of cheese you are using). Blend and add more wine a little at a time to obtain your preferred consistency. You could use water and lemon juice if you didn't want alcohol in the cheese.

Edited April 15, 2013 by Plantes Vertes (log)

[philie]

thank you all so much for the help!

especially the tip with the paste sound great!

believe it or not, this cheese is very hard, so hard even my microplanes have a hard time ( even though they still can handle it;))

[patrickamory]

Guys! Marcella Hazan to the rescue...

First, store your parmigiano wrapped in one layer of wax paper, then in another tight layer of aluminum foil, in the fridge. It will last almost forever this way.

Then, if it does get too hard and dry, wrap the dried-out cheese in a layer of dampened cheesecloth, then in wax paper, then in foil. Leave it in the fridge for two days. Remove. It will be like new. Store as above.

(Of course the rind can always be used for stews and soups and such, but you don't need to waste the cheese.)

All from "The Essentials..."

[lindag]

I use Foodsaver bags to store ALL my cheeses. They last forever.

[TdeV]

I have a few blocks of cheese (2 lbs) which have been hanging out in my fridge for quite a long time now. There are wedges of Gruyère, Ricotta Salata, and a nameless goat cheese. Once upon a time I put hard cheeses in the Cusinart food processor with the metal blade where they rattled around until ground into small pieces, but this damaged the locking ports on the work bowl, and I daren't make those worse. I don't think I'm strong enough to cut the cheese with a knife. There's no way I could grate it. There is no mould on the cheese.

 

What shall I do with these blocks of cheese?

[jimb0]

You can very likely grate them on the fine side of a box grater or microplane and use them as seasoning, or boil them to add flavour to a stew (this is common with hard, old parmesan rinds).

[jedovaty]

1 minute ago, jimb0 said:

 boil them to add flavour to a stew (this is common with hard, old parmesan rinds).

I saved ends and bits of parmesan for precisley this purpose, and put a small, 1 year old piece in a recent batch of red sauce.  It was rather unpleasant, definitely not my thing.  That said, I wouldn't steer anyone away from trying this, as I can see how some might like it.  So, use this as a gentle caution and try with something small just in case you might not like it.

 

@TdeV make lots of cheese bread or pao de quiejo!  Or dog/cat treats!  It'll be a workout grating it, maybe the food processor would come in handy.

[pastrygirl]

Use an ice pick or chisel to make smaller chunks, then suck on them.  Pretend it's Bhutanese dried yak cheese, if you like.

[jedovaty]

Facial scrub with sugar, olive and castor oils?  Umami-cleansed pores are the future.

[jimb0]

32 minutes ago, jedovaty said:

I saved ends and bits of parmesan for precisley this purpose, and put a small, 1 year old piece in a recent batch of red sauce.  It was rather unpleasant, definitely not my thing.  That said, I wouldn't steer anyone away from trying this, as I can see how some might like it.  So, use this as a gentle caution and try with something small just in case you might not like it.

 

@TdeV make lots of cheese bread or pao de quiejo!  Or dog/cat treats!  It'll be a workout grating it, maybe the food processor would come in handy.

 

I mean, I wouldn't necessarily eat the rind after boiling, it's something that you'd take out, like a bay leaf.

[jedovaty]

@jimb0 sorry for not being clear, I did not like the flavor imparted by the dried parm into the red sauce at all - just not my thing  

Edited May 22, 2020 by jedovaty (log)

[jimb0]

Ah, that’s fair. Taste is subjective, of course. I find a little knob can just add a background bit of umami, which I enjoy. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

2 hours ago, jedovaty said:

I saved ends and bits of parmesan for precisley this purpose, and put a small, 1 year old piece in a recent batch of red sauce.  It was rather unpleasant, definitely not my thing.  That said, I wouldn't steer anyone away from trying this, as I can see how some might like it.  So, use this as a gentle caution and try with something small just in case you might not like it.

 

@TdeV make lots of cheese bread or pao de quiejo!  Or dog/cat treats!  It'll be a workout grating it, maybe the food processor would come in handy.

 

Indeed, I pitched a bag of parmesan rinds last night.

 

[andiesenji]

Do you have a hack saw?  I have used one to saw blocks of brick-hard cheese into slabs and then saw the slabs into cubes.  

I put the cubes in a steamer and steamed them, checking at 5 minutes, 10 minutes and found most were softened at between 15 and 20 minutes 

so I could put them through the food processor a few at a time.

 

[Darienne]

6 hours ago, andiesenji said:

Do you have a hack saw?  I have used one to saw blocks of brick-hard cheese into slabs and then saw the slabs into cubes.  

I put the cubes in a steamer and steamed them, checking at 5 minutes, 10 minutes and found most were softened at between 15 and 20 minutes 

so I could put them through the food processor a few at a time.

 

To what end purpose, please.

[TdeV]

8 minutes ago, Darienne said:

To what end purpose, please.

 

Hi @Darienne. The first part of the question was how to get the wedges into smaller shape. (Thanks @andiesenji).

 

The second part of the question was what to do with them once there.

 

What would you do with them?

[weinoo]

40 minutes ago, TdeV said:

What would you do with them?

 

I like what Jacques does with them. Fromage Fort.

 

 

[blue_dolphin]

Ditto the Fromage Fort recommendation. I've used this recipe from David Lebovitz with varying cheese mixtures and good results each time.   If your cheeses are less interesting, Melissa Clark has a recipe for Jalapeño Fromage Fort in her recent book.  The recipe is available online here (scroll down) 

 

Edited to add that I've had only one cheese that completely resisted my efforts to grate it with my mouli-juilenne.  It's an old dry jack (Vella Golden Bear) that was rock hard when I bought it and has become like glass over time.  I will be trying @andiesenji's steaming method on it very soon!  If that fails, it will be joining the Parm rinds in soups!

Edited May 22, 2020 by blue_dolphin (log)

[chromedome]

I have not tried it myself, but I suspect that if fromage fort was the desired end result you could probably soak the recalcitrant cheeses in your wine first, and then buzz them in a food processor once they'd softened sufficiently.

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

I have discovered, waaay back in my fridge, a block of parmesan. And when I say "a block" I mean something akin to building materials. It's a fairly sizable chunk--over 7 oz.--and I'd like to somehow rehabilitate it. Hand grating is out of the question if you want to keep the skin on your fingers. Does anyone have any wisdom about how to soften it enough to grate? I think it's too small too use as a doorstop.

 

Bonus points if you get the joke title. Thanks for your help.

 

Host's note: the sentence above refers to the original title of this post, which was "Hard Cheese", before it was merged with an earlier topic on the same subject.

Edited 3 hours ago by Smithy
Added host's note (log)