1,554 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

This site uses only a few technical cookies necessary for its operation. By continuing to browse, you accept their use.
To find out more...

Parmesan cheese crusts

If you use Parmesan cheese (Parmigiano Reggiano) in your recipes, you may have already noticed: when you grate it, it becomes (very) difficult near the crust, especially if it is a slightly aged parmesan, as the cheese gets harder and harder.

So we stop grating, leaving some crust on top, and a certain thickness of cheese. What will happen to these crusts?

17 K 4.9/5 (20 reviews)

Keywords for this post:Recovery Leftovers Cheese Savings

Last modified on: September 14^th 2022

For this post: Comment Follow Ask me a question Send to a friend

Parmesan cheese crusts

Let's start with an observation: these crusts are generally as hard as wood!
You've done all you can, but it's impossible to grate more, especially by hand - too hard, and you risk injuring your fingertips with the grater if you press too hard.

croutes de parmesan

Should the crusts be thrown away? No, that would be a real shame, but how do you use them? Here are a few tips.

In a hot, liquid preparation

It's very simple: as soon as you prepare something hot and liquid - a soup, gratin or sauce, for example - add your croutons as soon as you start cooking, and let them flavour your preparation deliciously throughout. Remove them before blending (soups) or using, noting that they have become soft and can be eaten.

croutes de parmesan dans un futur gratin

Here are a few examples of recipes where you can use these croutons: Potato gratin (in the milk with the potatoes), béchamel sauce (also in the milk) or leek-potato soup (when you add the water) or parmesan-flavored gratin.
You can also prepare a parmesan milk that you can use later in a recipe.

In the oven

You can place your croutes in the oven for a few minutes at 180°C (360°F), where they will puff up and become crispy, ideal for serving as an aperitif, for example.

croutes de parmesan au four

Parmesan olive oil

Cut your croutes into small pieces, place in a jar with a lid, cover with olive oil and leave to macerate for at least 15 days.
The resulting Parmesan oil will add a pleasant aroma to your sauces or pasta dishes.

To sum up: Parmesan crumbles should not be thrown away - it would be a pity. It's better to use them in cooking, either hot (soups, sauces, in the oven, etc.), or cold (macerated in olive oil).

Lasts posts

XO Cognac Explained: Meaning, Aging, and Flavor Profile

XO Cognac always goes beyond the labels on the bottle: it is often associated with tradition and quality. You get to appreciate the artistry, character and ageing process when you understand what defines this smooth Cognac. The section below tackles everything about XO Cognac, from complex flavour...
January 28^th 2026490 Sponsored article

Butter vs. grease

We often read in a recipe where a pastry is put into a mould that, just before pouring, the mould should be buttered or greased. But what's the difference between these 2 terms?
December 1^st 20252,4255

Getting out of the fridge early

Very often when you're cooking, you need to take food or preparations out of the fridge, to use them in the recipe in progress. There's nothing tricky about this: you just take them out of the fridge and use them, usually immediately, in the recipe. But is this really a good method?
November 24^th 20251,5965

Who's making the croissants?

When you look at a bakery from the outside, you naturally think that in the bakery, the bakers make the bread, and in the laboratory, the pastry chefs make the cakes. It's very often like that, with each of these professions having quite different ways of working, but sometimes there's also one...
November 23^th 20251,441

Oven height

When we put a dish or cake in the oven, we naturally tend to put it on the middle shelf, and that's what we usually do. But in some cases, this position and height can be a little tricky, so let's find out why.
October 8^th 20254,6475

See all posts Random post RSS feeds

Other pages you may also like

Too much sweet and savoury

There is a food trend which is creeping in everywhere in France right now: mixing sweet with savoury. In some restaurants, it is becoming difficult to order a classic dish, like “roast veal” for instance, without being served fruits in the garnish or honey/conserves/syrup in the sauce or cooked...
November 3^rd 201127 K4.5

Baking a cake at the right time

When you make a cake, which most likely contains butter, a cake for example, chances are that as soon as the batter is finished, you put it in the pan and bake it immediately. Classic, everyone does it like that, and then if, on top of that, you have a few kids around you who are getting...
April 18^th 202021 K4.5

Thermal inertia or "out of the fire"

When you're cooking, you need a lot of heat to cook, and most of the time it's on the fire, literally if you're on gas, more indirectly if you're not. An expression that comes up quite often is "Off the heat", but what does it really mean?
December 12^th 202011 K4.6

The color of the bread crumb

When you go to buy bread, at your baker's, at the time of the choice, if you hesitate of course, you will undoubtedly be very sensitive to the color of the crust, and you will be right. The color of the crust, from golden, to sometimes very dark, deep brown almost black, depending on the maturity...
April 30^th 202221 K4.6

Sugar syrups

In cooking, and especially in pastry, we often use sugar syrups, a simple mixture of water and sugar in varying proportions. Here is a presentation of their differences. .
January 17^th 202313 K4.8