First off, you're probably wondering "what the hell is cheese broth?!?" Me too, believe me. It is essentially cheese rind tea that is used in saucing pasta and making polenta. Didn't seem too hard... just simmer pecorino romano or parmesan rinds in water for a few hours, strain and it's done. There are three recipes in Frankies that call for cheese broth so I picked up a few rinds from New Seasons (cheaper than buying 5 wedges of cheese and trying to quickly use it all) and brewed myself a cauldron-full.
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| cheese rinds ready for the pot |
But after a few hours, the smell had become pungent and not quite so lovely. The house started smelling pretty weird. When I couldn't take it any more, I strained out the soft and partially dissolved cheese rinds and portioned the results for the three upcoming recipes. A small taste revealed the cheese broth (or my version at least) to have a pungent and slighly oily cheese flavor that starts out strong but does not linger long on the palette. Is that good? I'm not sure...
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| before : after |
I am curious to see how much of a difference the broth actually makes to the finished flavor of a dish. I think I might make two batches of one of the recipes and compare them head-to-head for cheesey flavor. It had better make a big difference, believe me, cause the residual cheese left in the pot created a nasty, oily, rubbery mess that did not want to scrub off.
On a brighter note, I turned the left-over grilled veggies from the other night into a lovely salad with garden arugula and homemade goat cheese. Yum!!
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