Parmesan Broth
The contents of my freezers, that I will never have enough space in, can be quite interesting. Aside from the normal stuff that we all keep in the freezer, you'll find bricks of veggie or meat broth, the zipper bags of vegetable ends or meat scraps from butchering that are used to make those broths, and an assortment of frozen herbs.
Good, 30+ month-aged Reggiano Parmesan cheese is wicked expensive; in the vicinity $36.00+/- per pound. The rind can make up anywhere from 8 and 15% of the weight of the cheese. The simplest math makes it obvious that the rinds should not go to waste. So.... in my freezer, I also keep a bag for cheese rinds that can be boiled in soups or with pasta to add that wonderful rich nutty Parmesan flavor to whatever you're cooking. When you boil a rind in soup or pasta, the softer cheese side breaks down and seems to get absorbed into whatever is cooking and when all is said and done, you'll need to fish out and discard just the most outer portion of the rind.
Problem is, I keep forgetting they are in the freezer so the bag can get quite full. One day when I was organizing the freezer in preparation for a meat delivery (the subject of a future post), I came across this bursting bag of rinds. Having just organized and stacked the bricks of vegetable stock I'd made in the past few months, I decided to try the same with the rinds.
I dumped them into a stockpot, covered them with water and let them simmer for a few hours. It's important to note that since there are no other ingredients in the liquid, there is nothing to absorb the soft solids as they break down. That led to a rather difficult clean-up because of what stuck to the bottom of the pot in spite of very frequent stirring. Constant stirring might have made for an easier clean-up, but I didn't have the patience for that, and I liked the challenge of using some kitchen chemistry to clean the pot. More on that later.
As the 'broth' simmered, it first became cloudy and kind of milky. After about an hour it began to pick up a warmer buttery color and was smelling delicious. I kept it simmering (stirring very frequently) until it seemed to reach its richest color and the rinds were reduced to that outer portion I mentioned.
I used a spider to remove the rind remains and then strained the broth through a metal mesh strainer into a large Pyrex measuring cup, at which point, I totally zoned out and stopped taking photos.
After the broth sat for a bit, it began to separate with the fats rising to the top. There was about 9 cups of broth when all was said and done, and the containers I use hold 3 cups each for freezing (expansion room is important). I used a ladle to distribute the fat evenly among 3 containers, and the poured equal amounts of the remaining broth in each. Once they were completely frozen, I popped each 3-cup frozen brick out and put one each into a 1/2 gallon freezer bag which store much better than the containers.
Although I haven't actually used the broth yet, there is some baked eggplant parm variation swimming around in the rabbit hole ether, so stay tuned because one of the batches of broth is sure to be the base for the sauce.
THE RECIPE:
Some quantity of Parmesan rinds (I suppose Romano or even Asiago, depending on your taste, could work too)
Water for boiling (enough to cover the rinds with an additional 2-3 inches)
Patience for frequent stirring and, truth be told, the clean-up
Baking soda for clean-up
Heat the rinds and water in a stockpot.
Bring it to a boil.
Reduce heat to a simmer and stir frequently.
Continue simmering until the broth reaches a deep buttery color and the rinds have been reduced to just their outer skin.
Remove the rinds from the broth.
Pour the broth through a metal mesh strainer into a graduated bowl or cup and let cool a bit.
With a ladle, distribute among your containers, the rich fatty broth that rises to the top of the bowl.
Divide the remaining among your freezer containers.
When the Parmesan Broth is frozen, pop it out of the plastic container and transfer to zipper bags for easier storage.
Thought for food:
For a minute I thought I would have to buy a new stockpot and spoon.... The cheese solids rivaled mortar and neither a metal spatula nor the stainless scrubber made a dent. Having used heat and soapy water to clean scorched pans in the past, I started there and once the water was simmering, I added a handful of balking soda while stirring. Be careful here, I bubbled up big time and could easily have boiled over had I not been quick to stir it down. After that, scraping with a metal spoon and spatula handled the worst of it and finally, when it was cool enough to handle, the stainless scrubber removed the last of what stuck. As the idea for this eggplant dish is coming together, I'm pretty certain that the challenging clean-up will have been worth it.
