Is there a way to recover hardened Pecorino Romano?
I've had a wedge of Pecorino Romano wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge for a while. There are many of you out there that probably have had the same problem. :)
I actually cut a small piece and it was quite crunchy! I tried to grate it and it's no longer crumbly. So it's quite hard to grate. The cheese still tastes good, though.
Is there a way to get it back to its slightly softer and crumbly consistency?
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You can wet a paper towel, squeeze it out, wrap the cheese in it, then wrap it in Saran Wrap. Put in refrig. By the next day the outside edges will be grateable. Keep it this way in the refrig. It will continue to solften. I do it all the time.
You could try lightly steaming it, but in all likelihood there's no rescuing. Your best bet is to chop it and throw it in a blender to 'grate' it. Alternatively, blend it with maltodextrin/dextrose to (re)obtain the powdery quality.
We use a microplane grater for cheese. It works great for hard Parmesean or Pecarino. The volume increase is quite high, so it can take a while to grate the right amount. But it makes fast work of hard cheeses. It also melts very easily because the pieces are so small.
Obviously, this doesn't get you back to your consistency, which I think is unlikely. But the cheese is still very usable.
I don't think you can rescue it, but you can use it. Try putting it into a vegetable soup; you'll find that it adds a bit of body as well as flavour. You can also do this with the left-over rinds of any hard cheese.
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