Hi readers!
Welcome to Tuesday Cheese Tips — and today’s tip is a doozy.
I imagine that most of you throw out your cheese rinds when you’re finished with the cheese.
I used to do it, too — before I learned that I was tossing out flavor bombs.
Now I keep all of my old cheese rinds1 in a bag in the freezer — waiting for the perfect time to use them.
And what, exactly, is the perfect time to use a cheese rind?
When you’re making soups and sauces.
Next time you’re making tomato sauce for your pasta, take a little chunk of a Parmigiano-Reggiano2 rind and toss it in.
Give it an hour3 at a slow simmer, and your sauce will taste like you grated an entire chunk of cheese in there.
You can also throw a rind into chicken or veggie stock for a big punch of flavor — but I’ve noticed that the cheese flavor can overpower the chicken flavor in my stocks.
That’s why the best use of your leftover cheese rinds is to make “cheese stock.”
The first time The Man tried it — exact quote — “it’s like you turned broth into cheese. It’s like I’m drinking cheese.”
Cheese alchemy.
It’s delicious by itself, or with some orzo and veggies.
It also makes the best freaking rice you’ve ever had.
Now, you might be thinking that making stock is a big pain in the ass process where you have to leave a pot on the stove all day.
Let me reveal one of the best life hacks I ever learned: use a Crock Pot to make your stock. It changed my life.
Put your rinds, seasonings, and a quartered onion into the Crock Pot, fill it with water, and let it simmer all night and into the next day.
Voila, stock.
If you bundle your bones — or rinds — in cheesecloth, it makes cleanup super easy.
If you don’t use cheesecloth, make sure you fish your rinds out and toss them before serving — I’ve made that mistake once or twice 😂
“Why are you bothering me, mom? I’m napping in this sunbeam."
It’s time for me to plug Kitty Town Coffee again.4
Seriously, y’all. The coffee is roasted in small batches, each coffee is named after a real kitty with a story, and every bag feeds a homeless kitty for a week.5
If you enjoy light and medium roasts — this three bag sampler is a great place to start. Each coffee is unique — though Fezzik might be our favorite.
Bonus: the coffee is a few bucks less per bag than coffees of a similar quality.
Until next time, cheese (and cat) lovers!
Speaking of coffee, if you’d like to support my work but can’t swing a subscription, you can buy me a coffee!
Curd Culture is a reader supported publication. Thank you for supporting my dream of using my cheese experience to make a difference on two issues I care about: sustainable family farming and animal welfare.
Not the wax ones. Or the bloomy rinds. Throw those out.
Parm rinds are — bar none — the best rinds for this. But any hard cheese — like Alpine or Gouda — with a natural (not wax) rind works great. Bloomy rinds are no bueno.
Or less. More time = more flavor.
I’m not being compensated, I just love this coffee. And their adorable kitty mugs.
They partner with shelters and rescue groups.
How about Locatelli for the stock? ✌🏻