authentic products vs. replicas

[Deleted]

Yesterday, I bought some real Greek feta at the supermarket. You can't make a mistake, because 'feta' is now a controlled name and the only cheese authorised to use the authentic feta name in Europe comes from Greece.

I bought this for reasons of solidarity because something like 80% of the 'feta-style' cheese in the world is now made in France, Denmark, Germany or Australia. I can tell no difference in taste, so yesterday's purchase was purely to try to symbolically help Greece.

In the case of parmesan cheese, the subject does not come up in Europe, because the parmesan name has been protected for a very long time. However, like Don Cuevas, I have always very much liked the American-made replica product sold in green tubes which is not only good but also immortal. I will probably buy some again on my next trip to the U.S.

So I was wondering what kind of 'fake' products the rest of you buy or refuse to buy. I know that I would refuse to buy a few iconic French products if they were available with an abusive fake name here -- champagne and roquefort come to mind.

But basically I am not a hardliner for most products. I have always bought 'maple flavoured pancake syrup' rather than authentic maple syrup not just because it is so much cheaper but frankly because I cannot tell the difference.

Then again, I am not a 'foodie.'

[Don Cuevas]

I have actually come to prefer the green tube stuff to the more "authentic, but not quite" Uruguayan parmesan style cheese.

I think it's the "methylcellulose to prevent clumping" that makes the green tube stuff so addictive.

[lagatta]

I haven't had the Uruguayan, but very much like the Argentine Sardo cheese - not an imitation of Parmesan but obviously, of a similar cheese from Sardinia. It is very good. I don't much like the green tube stuff, but I'll certainly eat it if there is nothing else available and it is a very good shelf stable for people who don't have real Parmesan or similar cheeses (whatever the provenance) available around the corner for a reasonable price, as I do. But I much prefer the President's Choice brand tube parmesan to the Kraft kind.

"California champagne" greatly annoys me though. Not the wine - there are some very fine sparkling wines from Californa - but the producers should be proud of the region where they were grown and made.

Kerouac, I can easily tell the difference between real feta and the imitations that are made of cow's milk, not goat's or ewe's milk. But I have seen French feta-type cheese made of goat. Not to mention all the countries where feta is every bit as much a tradition as it is in Greece - parts of Turkey and the Balkans.

[hwinpp]

What's gran padano? I nearly always used to buy that instead of Parmesan.

Is Danish Blu a Roquefort copy?

[Deleted]

I wouldn't call it a copy since they didn't name it "Danish Roquefort." However, it's true that many cheeses now popular were inspired by cheeses from other countries.

[fumobici]

Jun 1, 2012 6:56:55 GMT hwinpp said:

What's gran padano? I nearly always used to buy that instead of Parmesan.

Grana padano is a less expensive grating cheese similar to Reggiano, it's what is generally found in the little bowls on the table at restaurants I can afford in the Emilia instaead of Reggiano. It's excellent.

[Deleted]

The stuff that always boggled my mind and somehow still passes (to unwitting people) as authentic crab meat is that abominable plastic like imitation crap. I can't recall the name of it.
Oh!! It's dreadful!!

[Deleted]

Surimi. It is indeed absolutely awful and yet I find myself eating it (buying it!) from time to time. I think that the back of my mind is telling me that it is made of healthy fish slush, so it's better to eat that than bacon, for example, but frankly I am not even sure if that is true.

[rikita]

i like surimi.

[hwinpp]

Jun 1, 2012 16:30:16 GMT fumobici said:

Jun 1, 2012 6:56:55 GMT hwinpp said:

What's gran padano? I nearly always used to buy that instead of Parmesan.

Grana padano is a less expensive grating cheese similar to Reggiano, it's what is generally found in the little bowls on the table at restaurants I can afford in the Emilia instaead of Reggiano. It's excellent.

Thanks, Fumo and K2.

[lagatta]

There is a significant difference between Danish Blu and Roquefort for people with an intolerance or allergy to cow's milk, as Roquefort is made from ewe's milk. However I'm sure there are other, less storied blues also made of ewe's or goat's milk, which are easier to digest for some people, including me. (I can tolerate a small amount of cow's milk cheese or yoghourt if I take a Lactaid pill, but a glass of milk would send me ... well, you know where, and it is not because I'm some annoying fussy eater. I had a grave cow's milk allergy in my postwar childhood, when milk was a symbol of progress and prosperity.

[auntieannie]

My understanding of Grana Padano vs Parmiggiano Reggiano is that before "Parmiggiano Reggiano" the business went bust for some maters of politics and whiffy money - if I recall well... it was a protected name for parmesan cheese from Parma and immediate surroundings, all from one particular supplier or cooperative.
The Grana Padano was parmesan cheese produced a little further afield and I have not a clue in the world if its name was protected or not. I suppose if it was protected at all, it was much less than the "parmigiano Reggiano".

At some point some 10-15 years ago, "Parmigiano Reggiano" totally disappeared from the supermarket shelves (at least in Switzerland) following some financial/political disgrace. I think it is coming back now but I have totally lost the plot on that matter.

[fumobici]

Grana is DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata), so yes protected although I think the definitions as far as the geographical area defined for its production may be looser than for Reggiano. Someone in Italy told me it actually predates Reggiano and is a truly ancient cheese. In a good Italian cheese shop you'll even see various sub-varieties of each, aged varying amounts of time and with correspondingly different prices. In Tuscany you may even find a hard pecorino being used in the same way.

[auntieannie]

I am not going to dispute any of it, fumo... I do think it had a lot to do with marketing. And we know that Parma knows how to market its products... look towards the pigs!

[Deleted]

I like lump eggs, but they are certainly not caviar. However, I have often heard people refer to them as such. Does anybody know if the word is protected for the real product on continents besides Europe? (Except of course when you are clearly talking about something totally different like aubergine caviar...)

[bixaorellana]

Just read this article, which address that question, Kerouac.

I do like the cheap fish eggs, but have never tasted the real thing. I assume roe is like beer and wine, in that there are certainly sublime examples, but the rank & file stuff can also be acceptable.

I'd love to try this bowfin caviar. What shocked me was the food critic who refused to even try it.
www.nytimes.com/2012/06/10/us/scarcity-of-beluga-caviar-opens-the-door-for-louisiana.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120610

[rikita]

i don't think i have ever eaten real caviar either, but i like the cheaper unreal one...

[hwinpp]

I have ;D

In Iran, the Shah's own Imperial Caviar, straight down from the Caspian to an Armenian's delicatessen where we'd also buy bacon, ham and sausage.

I've also had Beluga from the Charle's Bridge (?) in Prague.

[Deleted]

When I was in transit once in Moscow, I really wanted to buy a tin of caviar when I saw the duty free price -- but I was outbound for a 3 week holiday rather than returning home, so I didn't.

Strangely enough, most of the caviar that I have eaten in my life came from the Concorde. The husband of one of my colleagues had to take the Concorde all the time, and he would just keep the little glass jars of caviar since he couldn't stand it after awhile -- and my colleague didn't really care for it either (or rather she didn't want to eat it alone while her husband gagged), so I was given quite a few of those little jars.

[joanne28]

Kerouac, you say you can't tell the difference between table syrup and maple syrup. I can. Maple syrup is much sweeter and almost has a gritty feel on the tongue.

I can't bear Cool Whip and that ilk of pseudo whipped cream. I made whipped cream to go with strawberries the other night (first time in about 20 years) and my husband was amazed at the difference in taste. Whipped cream is not nearly so sweet and cloying, as I use very very little sugar.

I also avoid margarine like the plague. I once accidently buttered a roll with Becel (a brand here) and thought the butter had gone rancid.

I'm not much of a fish-eater in any way so the caviar/roe debate is way over my head.