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Don’t Toss It! How Parmesan Rinds Boost Umami Flavor
Are you throwing away those hard parmesan rinds after grating your cheese? Hold on! These seemingly useless pieces can transform some of your dishes into flavor rich beauties. The secret? Umami! Parmesan rinds are packed with parmesan rind umami goodness, adding depth and richness to any dish they touch.
What Is Umami?
Umami is one of the five basic tastes, alongside sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. It’s often described as the savory or meaty taste. Umami is brought about by certain amino acids and compounds found in foods like meat, cheese, mushrooms, and tomatoes. It adds depth and richness to the overall flavor of a dish, making it taste more satisfying and delicious. Parmesan cheese is rich in umami due to its high content of naturally occurring glutamate, an amino acid that contributes to its deep, savory, and complex flavor profile.
Why Keep Parmesan Rinds?
When you store parmesan rinds in the fridge, you’re essentially preserving a powerful umami flavor bomb. Toss one into your simmering soups, stews, or sauces, and watch as it magically elevates the taste, making it more savory and complex.
How to Use Parmesan Rinds to Add Umami:
- Save and Store: After finishing that last grate of cheese, make sure the rinds are clean and store them in an airtight container in your fridge or freezer. We keep either a plastic bag of rinds or wrap them in beeswax food wrap.
- Add to Soups and Stews: Drop a Parmesan rind into your soup pot while cooking. As it simmers, it releases its umami essence, enhancing the entire dish. Try out using a rind in Minestrone soup, it’s delicious, comforting and nutritious!
- Broth: Create a Parmesan broth out of leftover rinds. Then, use the broth topped with stuffed pasta like ravioli or tortellini or as the base to cook white legumes like fava, lima or butter beans. You could also use Parmesan broth to create a light cream sauce to top pasta, vegetables or chicken.
- Risotto: You can also add Parmesan rind to whatever broth you are using for your risotto to add depth of flavor to your rice.
Start using this simple yet ingenious kitchen hack by not throwing out your Parmesan rinds the next time you have one. The umami-rich world of parmesan rind magic is at your fingertips! 🧀✨
