"You've got your pasta water ready and your fresh black pepper toasted - everything is perfectly timed for an Instagram-worthy plate of the Italian classic: cacio e pepe. But instead of a silken cheese sauce coating your peppered pasta, you get a gritty mess studded with lumps of cheese fat. What went wrong? It's not necessarily anything you did, but what you used: pre-shredded cheese."
"There's a reason why virtually all chefs avoid and despise pre-shredded cheese: No matter what it says on the packaging, it's never "100% cheese." These convenient shreds are coated in substances - typically cellulose or wood pulp, starch, calcium sulfate, or sodium aluminosilicate - to prevent them from doing exactly what cacio e pepe needs them to do: melting into a smooth, creamy emulsion that clings to every strand of pasta."
"Pre-shredded cheese manufacturers aren't intentionally trying to ruin your meal. Those additive, anti-caking agents are there to keep your bag of cheese from turning into one solid, useless brick by absorbing moisture and keeping the shreds separate. But, while they're excellent for shelf-life, they're terrible for melting. For a dish this simple - this dependent on technique and chemistry - those additives are the equivalent of kryptonite."
Pre-shredded cheese often contains anti-caking additives such as cellulose, starch, calcium sulfate, and sodium aluminosilicate. Those additives absorb moisture and keep shreds separate to prevent clumping during storage. The same additives interfere with melting and prevent the cheese from forming a smooth, creamy emulsion needed to coat pasta in dishes like cacio e pepe. Manufacturers include these substances for shelf-life and convenience, not to ruin dishes. The simple solution is to buy blocks and grate cheese fresh, which melts evenly and produces a silky sauce. Pecorino Romano is recommended for authentic cacio e pepe because it is sharper and more savory than Parmesan.
Read at Tasting Table
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]