New Kraft Parmesan comes inside its own grater, too bad

11-30-2006 @11:34PM dragonet2 said... We're big fans of romano, and Costco sells great big slices of natural italian Romano for a fair price. At my house, we all dislike the Kraft 'parmesan' but we have an easy way out....we always have one or two chunks of romano in the cheese drawer.
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12-01-2006 @3:05AM Fazal Majid said... If you read the list of ingredients, it includes cellulose powder, i.e. sawdust.
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12-01-2006 @11:31AM Kassie said... I'm not sure I understand who this is marketed to. If you don't care about the quality of your cheese, you will by the normal Kraft shakey cheese. If you do care, you already own a cheese grater and can just buy normal cheese.

And, do people really not own cheese graters?
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12-01-2006 @11:40AM John said... Like you, Jonathan, I noticed this product on my local grocery shelves only recently. The only reason I took note of it at all: I was actively shopping for Parmesan at the time. I inspected the package, chuckled briefly, and put it right back where I found it.

Like you, I also quickly did the math in my head...it comes out to an even 16 bucks per pound. I can get the real stuff for $10-15 per pound (even less when it's on sale that week!). I expect that the prices of things are generally lower here than wherever you are.

Aside from the whopping price (for an obviously inferior cheese), I decided that the included grater was a complete waste. How could a piece of plastic possibly compete with an old-fashioned, stainless box grater? The plastic one would either break, wear out, or be replaced (with a metal one) within weeks or months.

And although I have never consumed termite droppings, I HAVE (albeit accidentally) tasted sawdust. I would imagine they're pretty similar. If I want to top my linguine with sawdust, I can get all I want for free down at the lumberyard at Lowe's.
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12-01-2006 @10:20PM zilla said... Personally, I love this product. I love this product partly because my foodie cheese-snob dairy-buyer for a snotty retail outlet that caters to spoiled yuppiessister would hate it. I also love it because I am 99% anti-dairy -- I hate those dairy lobby bastards trying to market cow milk as suitable nutrition for humans when everyone in their right mind knows that lactose and casein are indigestible among most humans over the age of four years.

Why do I love this product? Because it says right on the label that the grater is not re-usable, and I consider that a challenge. I've got news for you: a bic lighter is less re-usable. All you need to re-use the grate-it-fresh grater is a hunk of decent pecorino romano (leave the cow milk alone, I beg you!), an electric drill, and one teeny-tiny drill bit for making the guide hole.

It takes about five minutes to wash, relaod and re-assemble, and it saves you nothing. But it makes you look cool as hell. It shows the world you're down-to-earth enough not to need some kind of gourmet, fancy-schmancy cheese & grater to bolster your esteem.

Please, send me your grate-it-fresh cast-offs. I've got more hard, grainy, nutty sheep-milk cheeses to grate than I have graters for.
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12-03-2006 @1:08PM Jamie said... I bought something just like this a few weeks ago- only good! Trader Joe's had one with what looks like the same grater apparatus and a chunk of actual aged parm instead of whatever pseudofood crap kraft is poisoning the unwashed masses with. I really like it so far- the grater works well, churning out superfine strands of parm- not like the thick grated bits or shreds. The cotton candy like puff mine made after twisting for a bit would look quite artistic on something like a cup or nice hot soup or small salad, I thought. As others have pointed out, you do pay a premium for one with a grater, but I feel like it's worth it to not have to wash a grater 20 times over the life of my typical block of parm. It's a priority call, and (when you can get one with the good stuff) I think it's worth the extra buck or two.
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