cheese rind

hotcookie101

I keep them in the freezer and add to soups, bolognase and stews. They do make a difference and I find it increases the savory-ness (am sure thats a real word!:rotfl:)

I just have them in a bag in the door of the freezer and chuck one in. Just remember to remove it if you are blitzing the soup:eek::rotfl:

Primrose

hotcookie - does this mean that the rind doesn't actually completely melt and disappear?

noapron

There was a series on a while ago called Economy Gastronomy where the cook put Parmesan rind in soup and raved about it. I didn't know you could save it in the freezer though, so thanks for that tip. I have taken to putting Parmesan into my meatball mix, so now I'm wondering grating the rind would work as well.

Diflower

Primrose wrote: »

hotcookie - does this mean that the rind doesn't actually completely melt and disappear?

No, it gets quite a bit smaller depending on cooking time though.
So I'm not sure that you could use the actual rind for grating into things, it's very hard.

seraphina

I do this and fish out what's left of the rind - it doesn't disappear entirely.

It definitely imparts a great savouriness that's especially appreciated in soups made with vegetable stocks - in fact the first time I seasoned as I usually do and got it totally wrong because of the depth of flavour given by the rind.

Firebird

This sounds like a good idea. I never knew what to do with the rind other than bin it which goes against the grain. We love parmesan with just about everything so buy it on offer when I can and freeze it so I will keep the rind and add to something when we are finished.

rosie383

Thank you for the tip about putting it in the freezer. I was dead chuffed with the last one I bought as it didn't have any rind at all!

Meadows

Primrose wrote: »

I've often read that melting finished Parmesan cheese rinds in soups improves their flavour and have collected a number of rinds in plastic bags in my fridge for this purpose. But the rinds do taste a little stale and manky and now the soup making season is here, wonder if anybody actually does this and whether it really does improve the flavour?

They taste fine, cut off the very outer waxy edge before use or freezing (I try to only remove a thin slice from the outer edge as you don't want the wax in your cooking).
Add the rind to cooking then discard piece/pieces you do use before serving, they don't tend to melt but go very soft.

It just adds a light creamy slightly cheesy taste to your cooking.

Just wrap them in a little cling film and then in a freezer bag and use straight from the freezer when needed.

Caterina

Primrose, the rind does not melt completely, just a bit but what it does is it becomes soft and gives out flavour (and a bit of saltiness).

Italians do this as a matter of course and when I first started living with my DH (then boyfriend) I had a memorable argument with him, because I served him soup with a piece of this cooked rind and he was really upset at biting into it, thinking it was a slug!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:We have come a long way since then!

katholicos

Caterina wrote: »

Primrose, the rind does not melt completely, just a bit but what it does is it becomes soft and gives out flavour (and a bit of saltiness).

Italians do this as a matter of course and when I first started living with my DH (then boyfriend) I had a memorable argument with him, because I served him soup with a piece of this cooked rind and he was really upset at biting into it, thinking it was a slug!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:We have come a long way since then!

I always add the parmesan rind to pasta sauce and it makes for a very flavourful dish. When i was married to my (long gone -though not deceased-ex) Italian husband, the mothers in the family also used to give the babies large chunks of parmesan rind to use as a teething tool. We did this with our son and he loved it!