Okay I'll bite. Please tell us your opinion on grated cheese in great detail.
Well, it’s just common sense, really.
Off the top of my head: if at all possible, you should grate your cheese yourself just before you use it. And 90% of that should be hard, well-aged cheese like Parmesan or Grana. Some dishes call for Pecorino or goat cheese, but those shouldn’t be grated with a Parmesan grater - they hold their flavour much better if you use one of these guys right here -
- and yeah, I know that’s Parmesan-branded - you do use that on Parmesan, but only for dishes like minestrone, carpaccio or salads. And as long as no one sees it, you’re allowed to slice other cheeses with it.
Grated cheese may be used - sparingly - only on stuff like soups, pasta and risotto, but not if the sauce already contains cheese or is made with fish of any kind, or truffles, or some other specialty ingredient like dark chocolate.
Never ever use grated cheese on pizza.
(Béchamel is also made with grated Parmesan, btw, not with ricotta.
Also mozzarella should go on pizzas sliced, not grated.
I mean, you can’t actually grate mozzarella because it looks like this -
- but still, seemed worth to mention it.)
For stuffed omelettes you need softer cheeses, which will melt better. Those you can grate, I suppose, but not as finely as you would Parmesan.
Grilled cheese sandwiches are not a thing fit for human society.
Oh, and some special cheeses do deserve their own specific grater, but that’s mostly the Swiss messing around. Like, this looks pretty and all -
- but tête de moine just isn’t worth all that hassle. It tastes like salt and bitter regret? Also fondue cheese needs to be grated in its own way, but if you don’t have a caquelon, you can’t have fondue anyway, so, again - just melt some gorgonzola on top of your baked veggie and call it a day.
(I know slurping 2L of melted cheese sounds good - and it is - but please consider it does shave five years off your life, so.)
Finally, I don’t know what the hell this guys’ doing, but please don’t. God gave us knives for a reason. Let’s honor Him and use them.
*since this is tumblr, I feel I should add this is not The Law; experimenting with food is fun, and the only rule is: please try to keep yourself alive and healthy
