merryb wrote:

>> I've had imported Parmesan before, but never the name brand stuff,
>> until today. My gosh it's good. I need to make some stuffed
>> mushrooms with it.

> Try Grana Padano- a little cheaper, but very similar.

Grana Padano can be very good indeed, and the same is true for grana
trentino, or trentingrana, one of the best grana around. One thing that many
do not know also here in Italy, is that Grana is the family which includes
Parmigiano Reggiano (PR-RE) among its members, thus PR-RE is just one kind
of Grana, along with grana padano and grana trentino. In the town of Lodi,
near Milano, the local grana padano is so peculiar that they are now calling
it "grana lodigiano" and have their own consorzio as do parmigiano reggiano
and the other grana production areas. Lodigiano is less pressed so it
remains moister, some zafferano is added too and it has a minimum aging of
24 months while for other grana cheeses the minimum is usually one year for
the so called "giovane" (young).
What makes parmigiano reggiano so important is a set of things: it has been
the first grana cheese ever made, to the point that the name "formaggio"
(and all its translations such as fromage) comes from the "forme" (kind of
"moulds") where it got shaped in, before PR-RE there was only "cacio" shaped
in straw-made "fascere". The production disciplinary of PR-RE is remained
the same since the first tracks of this cheese in history around AD 1100.
Moreover, it is one of the best in quality thanks to many local bovine
breeds (expecially reggiana rossa and modenese bianca) who give incredible
results and thanks to the hillside pastures. Another plus is that the
disciplinary forbids to feed fermented corn to the cows, thusly allowing the
use of milk and rennet only and no preserving agents since the fermented
corn is what makes other grana (as padano) explode unless they use
preserving agents.
Someone in sardegna started to use the technique of grana cheeses with goat
milk: Gransardo di Capra is a very interesting product. I once had a wedge
which was 14 months old, I didn't even believe goat cheese could stand such
an ageing time, and it was complex without being too stingy.