This 600 gram cheese (and it’s 2 sisters) were made using Ricki Carroll’s “Parmesan” recipe nearly 10 years ago on 7/11/16
It was dried, vac packed and aged at 12 C.
It’s sisters were opened and eaten with much enjoyment at 2 years age and 6 years of age.
I finally ran out of patience and decided to open it.
I had a sniff, and realized that I had, sadly, gone too far.
Rather than the fruity notes I had hoped for, I got "Toast" and "Caramel". First taste confirmed that the cheese had been slowly deteriorating in flavor since I had opened it's sister 4 years ago. As I lost fruity flavor, the upside was Umami had increased, and crystal formation was just ridiculous.
I don't think I have ever seen a cheese as packed with crystals. The Umami was so strong, it actually numbed my tongue.
After resting the cheese for a while I grated it and made a few discoveries.
The crystal density increases towards the center of the cheese. I hadn't noticed this as much in previous cheeses.
The flavor has moderated after resting a bit. It's significantly less aggressive on the tongue and much more balanced.
I'm much happier about it now than I was a originally. Suffice to say I will be using every gram of it over time, so it's still a win!
by 5ittingduck
18 Comments
Yeah, it’s trash. Go ahead and ship it to me so I can toss it.
toasty, caramely, tons of crystals… sounds delicious to me lol
Looks good.
Thanks for the top quality post with informative commentary! Really good stuff
Inspiring
For legal reasons, this is “sparkling cheese”.
This guy cheeses
Absolute legend. I love years spanning experiments like this.
Thank you for elevating the quality of Reddit content.
*reaches past the 10 year old parmesan cheese and grabs the kraft grated sawdust instead*
I’m sorry, I’m trash, I wish I wasn’t like this.
Blessed be the cheese makers
Wow that looks phenomenal!!
Mmmm…big sniff….ahhh…no covid.
G’day, curd nerds.
I want to nibble the diamond cheese
The real question here is was it made in November or July? I’m thinking November because of the metric weight.
For those that are interested, there are some other old posts of the “Hard Italian Style Cheese” journey, and a shot of the cheese aging fridges.
https://old.reddit.com/r/cheesemaking/comments/kljvpf/crystals_growing_in_a_4_year_old_parmesan_note/
https://old.reddit.com/r/cheesemaking/comments/obxs2q/my_oldest_ever_at_nearly_7_years_parmesan/
https://old.reddit.com/r/cheesemaking/comments/hy0ksd/2014_6_year_old_homemade_parmesan_style_cheese_so/
https://old.reddit.com/r/cheesemaking/comments/jjyjjg/i_have_been_hard_at_work_repairing_the_damage_to/
I can’t imagine how your salivary glands could cope with all those crystals! Very nice looking cheese.