The Greatest Cheese on Earth!

Welcome to Prudence Dapperling's "Mouse in a Million" BIG CHEESE Blog!

You're probably asking yourself, "The 'greatest' cheese? Really? And how would Dapperling know?"

I'm a mouse, remember? (Says so on my passport. Right page, seventh line from the top.)

 

And mice know these things.

Anyway, the cheese I consider to be the greatest ever, in terms of history, shelf-life, and all-around awesomeness, is... drum roll, please...

Parmigiano-Reggiano!

If you want to talk "big cheese," this one, produced in the Italian province of Emilia-Romagna, is the biggest. Wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano weigh in at 66 to 88 pounds!

This cheese was the stuff that powered the mighty Roman legions on their marches across Europe and most of the known world. Parmigiano travelled well. Needing no refrigeration, the cheese had (and has) a "shelf life" of several years.

And flavor? Wow! It's huge. Thick, delicious, bold. Parmigiano is a hard cheese (a "grana") that can be grated into fine grains for spreading around on other foods or chipped off for enjoying all by itself. The flavor is spicy (like cinnamon or nutmeg), salty, nutty... in short, just plain wonderful.

Get yourself a wedge and chow down. Once you do, I'm sure you'll agree: Parmigiano-Reggiano is the greatest cheese on earth!