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The Infographics Show, Why Is Parmesan So Expensive?

Why Is Parmesan So Expensive?

It's probably your favorite thing to put on your spaghetti or your pizza,

but it's also definitely not what you think it is. Everytime you rip open a

packet of complimentary parmesan cheese to sprinkle it onto a piping how pizza,

you're actually sprinkling it all over with... well, god knows what, but it's definitely not

parmesan cheese. If it were real parmesan cheese, you could probably pay your college

tuition with all the packets of parm that you've collected over years of ordering delivery pizza.

This might come as a shocker to you, but companies have been purposefully mislabeling their products

as real parmesan cheese when what they serve is anything but. We know, a company trying

to get one over on poor, ignorant consumers? What a stretch. What might also not surprise

you is that the US government is actively helping cheese hustlers sell you fake parm.

Real parmesan cheese can run $1,000 a wheel or more, depending on how long it's been aged,

and at that price point you'd probably be counting every single flake of parmesan that you sprinkle

onto your spaghetti. Known as the “king of cheeses”, parmesan is so expensive because

it can only be physically produced in just one small area of the world inside Italy. Here,

the unique bacteria that cows ingest and transfer into their milk grows abundantly,

but has difficulty growing anywhere else. With only a few towns in Italy able to

actually make the stuff, real parmesan cheese- or parmigiano-reggiano, if you want to be completely

insufferable about it- is in quite limited supply. Add to that the fact that it must be aged at least

a year before being sold and you can start to see why the price of real parmesan cheese is so high.

This authentic king of cheeses commands such a high price that the parm industry

spread out across just a few towns in Italy is worth well over $2 billion every year.

So how exactly does one make the king of cheeses? Considering the technique is over 800 years old

and can only be used in one tiny area of the world, it must be a complex, difficult process.

Not really, turns out all you need to make real parmesan cheese is milk, salt, and rennet-

enzymes from the stomach of a cow that help curdle milk. Oh, and time, a lot of time.

First you have your dairy cow graze on specific grass in this region of italy, which teems with

three types of bacteria needed for parmesan's distinct flavors. Next, you milk that cow- well,

you're going to need a lot more than one cow because it takes about 131 gallons of milk

to make a single wheel of parmesan cheese. Now that you've got your milk, you stir it

in a giant heated copper bowl, adding your rennet which will help the milk begin to curdle. You must

continue stirring that milk nonstop for hours, or else spoil the batch. As the milk begins to

separate and curdle, what will eventually become your cheese is deposited at the bottom of the pot,

so you then use linen cloth to carefully scoop up all that delicious future-parm.

You don't want runny cheese, so you must carefully dry out the lump of formless cheese

and get rid of as much moisture as possible before finally dumping it into a mold

which will give it its final, round wheel shape. As you wait a full day for the cheese to set,

you regularly switch out your linen cloth so that the cheese won't stick to it.

Four days later you can finally remove your wheel of cheese from its mold,

and give it a bath- for 19 days in a very salty brine. The salty brine will help give the cheese

flavor and fuel the chemical processes inside that will result in a delicious cheese one day.

After its three week brine bath, it's time to... well, give it even more time. Your wheel of cheese

goes on a shelf in a carefully climate controlled warehouse where it will sit for at least a year.

If you're patient enough, you can mature your cheese even longer, and the more you

wait the more you can expect your cheese to sell for. Cheese that's been aged for three

years can sell for about $15 a pound if you live in Europe. If not, you can buy it on amazon for

a whopping $30 a pound, but hey, free shipping. Real parmesan cheese is pretty serious business

for italy, so serious in fact that the process to create it is protected by law.

Real parmesan cheese cannot legally contain more than three ingredients: salt, milk, and rennet.

We're pretty sure here in America it's actually illegal for food to only contain three ingredients

and no chemical additives. Parmigiano-reggiano also cannot legally be sold unless it has been

aged at least one year. The cheese is such a commodity in Italy that some banks even

use it as collateral- and that's not a hilarious joke about Italian stereotypes, it's the truth.

For years food fakers had been selling fake parmesan as the real deal, until Italy finally

convinced the European Union to crack down and make it illegal for anyone to label their cheese

as parmesan unless it was, you know, Parmesan. Here in the US though, food integrity would get

in the way of unchecked capitalism, so our government pretty much ignored calls from

Europe to enforce similar laws. After all, food safety and food integrity is for socialists,

now please pass more of that powdered milk-soy chemical mystery cheese powder.

But what are you eating if this entire time you haven't been eating communist parmesan cheese?

Well, there's literally no telling, because cheese manufacturers are allowed to basically

get away with murder and oversight is rare if not non-existent. One of the few times the FDA

actually looked into the matter though was in 2012, when it raided a Castle Cheese Inc.

factory that made “100 percent real parmesan”. What the inspectors found was that the factory

was substituting most of the cheese for cellulose made out of wood pulp. Don't feel bad though,

because if you buy grated cheese, you're buying less than 40% other cheese. What's the rest of the

ingredients? Well, again, wood pulp cellulose, as well as various chemical preservatives and

flavor enhancers, cow hoof shavings and... honestly, who knows? No one's checking.

There's literally no oversight, but one dead giveaway next time you're at the grocery

store that you're not getting real cheese is that you'll find the word cheese isn't printed anywhere

on the package. Kraft, probably one of the worst offenders, can't even label its products as cheese

anymore, which is why that stuff you put on your burgers and sandwiches is just called “Kraft

Singles”. If you look closely on the labels to Kraft and other cheese producer's products

you'll see the words “processed cheese”, “prepared cheese”, or “cheese food/product”. If you do see

these words, drop that packet and run, because it's not real cheese but rather made from cheese.

What that means we don't know and we don't want to know because the implications are terrifying.

Now go find out what happens when you eat an all-American diet with I only ate fast food

for 30 days and this is what happened! Or check out this other video instead!

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Why Is Parmesan So Expensive? ||Parmesan cheese|| ||Parmesan peyniri|| Warum ist Parmesan so teuer? ¿Por qué es tan caro el parmesano? Pourquoi le parmesan est-il si cher ? Porque é que o parmesão é tão caro? Почему пармезан такой дорогой? Parmesan Neden Bu Kadar Pahalı? Чому пармезан такий дорогий?

It's probably your favorite thing to  put on your spaghetti or your pizza, |наверное||любимое|вещь||положить|||спагетти|||пицца

but it's also definitely not what you  think it is. Everytime you rip open a |||определенно|||||||каждый раз||разрываешь|| ||||||||||||tear open||

packet of complimentary parmesan cheese  to sprinkle it onto a piping how pizza, пакет бесплатного сыра пармезан, чтобы посыпать его на готовую пиццу,

you're actually sprinkling it all over with...  well, god knows what, but it's definitely not

parmesan cheese. If it were real parmesan  cheese, you could probably pay your college ||||||high-quality cheese|||||||

tuition with all the packets of parm that you've  collected over years of ordering delivery pizza. ||||||Parmesan Käse|||||||||

This might come as a shocker to you, but companies  have been purposefully mislabeling their products |||||||||||||falsch etikettieren|| Dit is misschien een schok voor u, maar bedrijven hebben hun producten opzettelijk verkeerd geëtiketteerd

as real parmesan cheese when what they serve  is anything but. We know, a company trying

to get one over on poor, ignorant consumers?  What a stretch. What might also not surprise ||||||uninformed||||||||| чтобы нажиться на бедных, невежественных потребителях? Ну и дела. Что также не может удивить

you is that the US government is actively  helping cheese hustlers sell you fake parm. ||||||||||Betrüger|||| jij bent dat de Amerikaanse regering actief kaasmakers helpt om je nepparmezaanse kaas te verkopen.

Real parmesan cheese can run $1,000 a wheel  or more, depending on how long it's been aged,

and at that price point you'd probably be counting  every single flake of parmesan that you sprinkle |||||||||||Flocke|||||

onto your spaghetti. Known as the “king of  cheeses”, parmesan is so expensive because

it can only be physically produced in just one  small area of the world inside Italy. Here,

the unique bacteria that cows ingest and  transfer into their milk grows abundantly, ||||||||||||in large quantities

but has difficulty growing anywhere else. With only a few towns in Italy able to

actually make the stuff, real parmesan cheese- or  parmigiano-reggiano, if you want to be completely

insufferable about it- is in quite limited supply.  Add to that the fact that it must be aged at least

a year before being sold and you can start to see  why the price of real parmesan cheese is so high.

This authentic king of cheeses commands  such a high price that the parm industry

spread out across just a few towns in Italy  is worth well over $2 billion every year.

So how exactly does one make the king of cheeses?  Considering the technique is over 800 years old

and can only be used in one tiny area of the  world, it must be a complex, difficult process.

Not really, turns out all you need to make  real parmesan cheese is milk, salt, and rennet- ||||||||||||||||Lab (enzyme)

enzymes from the stomach of a cow that help  curdle milk. Oh, and time, a lot of time. |||||||||gerinnen|||||||| |||||||||Coagulate||||||||

First you have your dairy cow graze on specific  grass in this region of italy, which teems with ||||milk-producing cow|dairy cow||||||||||||

three types of bacteria needed for parmesan's  distinct flavors. Next, you milk that cow- well,

you're going to need a lot more than one cow  because it takes about 131 gallons of milk ||||||||||||||liters of milk||

to make a single wheel of parmesan cheese. Now that you've got your milk, you stir it ||||||Parmesan cheese wheel||||||||||

in a giant heated copper bowl, adding your rennet  which will help the milk begin to curdle. You must ||||copper bowl|copper mixing vessel|||curdling enzyme agent||||||||||

continue stirring that milk nonstop for hours,  or else spoil the batch. As the milk begins to

separate and curdle, what will eventually become  your cheese is deposited at the bottom of the pot,

so you then use linen cloth to carefully  scoop up all that delicious future-parm. Затем с помощью льняной салфетки аккуратно зачерпните весь этот вкусный будущий пармезан.

You don't want runny cheese, so you must  carefully dry out the lump of formless cheese ||||||||||||block of cheese|||

and get rid of as much moisture as possible  before finally dumping it into a mold ||||||excess water|||||||||casting form

which will give it its final, round wheel shape.  As you wait a full day for the cheese to set,

you regularly switch out your linen cloth  so that the cheese won't stick to it. регулярно меняйте льняную салфетку, чтобы сыр не прилипал к ней.

Four days later you can finally remove  your wheel of cheese from its mold,

and give it a bath- for 19 days in a very salty  brine. The salty brine will help give the cheese |||||||||||Lake|||||||| |||||||||||salty water solution||||||||

flavor and fuel the chemical processes inside  that will result in a delicious cheese one day.

After its three week brine bath, it's time to...  well, give it even more time. Your wheel of cheese

goes on a shelf in a carefully climate controlled  warehouse where it will sit for at least a year.

If you're patient enough, you can mature  your cheese even longer, and the more you Als je geduldig genoeg bent, kun je je kaas nog langer laten rijpen, en des te meer jij

wait the more you can expect your cheese to  sell for. Cheese that's been aged for three

years can sell for about $15 a pound if you live  in Europe. If not, you can buy it on amazon for

a whopping $30 a pound, but hey, free shipping. Real parmesan cheese is pretty serious business |very large amount||||||||Parmesan cheese|||||

for italy, so serious in fact that the  process to create it is protected by law.

Real parmesan cheese cannot legally contain more  than three ingredients: salt, milk, and rennet. |||||||||||||curdling enzyme

We're pretty sure here in America it's actually  illegal for food to only contain three ingredients

and no chemical additives. Parmigiano-reggiano  also cannot legally be sold unless it has been

aged at least one year. The cheese is such  a commodity in Italy that some banks even ||||||||||valuable product||||||

use it as collateral- and that's not a hilarious  joke about Italian stereotypes, it's the truth. |||security for loan||||||||||||

For years food fakers had been selling fake  parmesan as the real deal, until Italy finally Jarenlang verkochten voedselfakers nep-parmezaanse kaas als de echte deal, tot eindelijk Italië

convinced the European Union to crack down and  make it illegal for anyone to label their cheese

as parmesan unless it was, you know, Parmesan.  Here in the US though, food integrity would get ||||||||||||||food authenticity||

in the way of unchecked capitalism, so our  government pretty much ignored calls from

Europe to enforce similar laws. After all, food  safety and food integrity is for socialists,

now please pass more of that powdered  milk-soy chemical mystery cheese powder.

But what are you eating if this entire time you  haven't been eating communist parmesan cheese? Но что вы едите, если все это время вы не ели коммунистический сыр пармезан?

Well, there's literally no telling, because  cheese manufacturers are allowed to basically

get away with murder and oversight is rare if  not non-existent. One of the few times the FDA komm davon|||||||||||||||||| Убийство сходит с рук, а надзор осуществляется редко, а то и вовсе отсутствует. Один из немногих случаев, когда FDA

actually looked into the matter though was  in 2012, when it raided a Castle Cheese Inc.

factory that made “100 percent real parmesan”.  What the inspectors found was that the factory

was substituting most of the cheese for cellulose  made out of wood pulp. Don't feel bad though, ||||||||||||wood fiber substitute||||

because if you buy grated cheese, you're buying  less than 40% other cheese. What's the rest of the ||||geriebenem||||||||||||

ingredients? Well, again, wood pulp cellulose,  as well as various chemical preservatives and |||||||||||chemical stabilizers|

flavor enhancers, cow hoof shavings and...  honestly, who knows? No one's checking.

There's literally no oversight, but one dead  giveaway next time you're at the grocery

store that you're not getting real cheese is that  you'll find the word cheese isn't printed anywhere

on the package. Kraft, probably one of the worst  offenders, can't even label its products as cheese

anymore, which is why that stuff you put on your  burgers and sandwiches is just called “Kraft

Singles”. If you look closely on the labels  to Kraft and other cheese producer's products

you'll see the words “processed cheese”, “prepared  cheese”, or “cheese food/product”. If you do see

these words, drop that packet and run, because  it's not real cheese but rather made from cheese.

What that means we don't know and we don't want  to know because the implications are terrifying. Что это значит, мы не знаем и не хотим знать, потому что последствия ужасают.

Now go find out what happens when you eat an  all-American diet with I only ate fast food А теперь идите и узнайте, что произойдет, если вы будете питаться по американской диете: "Я ел только фастфуд".

for 30 days and this is what happened!  Or check out this other video instead!