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What to snack on (other than slices of parmesan)
so this might be a weird question but -- occasionally, particularly in the evenings, I get a strong craving for parmesan cheese. I live in Germany, so I don't mean the green tube kind either. I'll just take little slices off a wedge of real-ass parmesan that we bought to shred over pasta and such.
Thing is, parmigiano reggiano is pretty expensive, and the similar replacement cheeses like pecorino aren't that much cheaper. But I don't know of any other snack that can deliver the combo of saltiness and umami like just munching on slices of italian hard cheese.
So, does anybody else on Tildes understand this? Or have any recommendations for other foods to scratch this itch? Keeping in mind I'm in Germany, so I'm limited to stuff I can buy here.
Have you tried a yeast extract spread like Marmite before? If you spread it super thinly over a buttered slice of toast it's delicious, IMO. It's definitely an acquired taste, but much like Parmesan, it's also a salty umami bomb, so you might like it.
Yep, you can never go wrong with Vegemite on toast. I'm not a fan of Marmite though, I find it sweeter and greasier than Vegemite.
Another 'salty umami bomb' snack I love is to make some stovetop popcorn and throw some salt and nutritional yeast on it. That's a great evening snack.
If you want to have authentic movie theater flavor, make sure to use Flavacol!
https://tildes.net/~food/1ceg/whats_the_deal_with_the_popcorn_button#comment-bb44
I'm kind of obsessed about movie theater popcorn and even experimented with a bunch of different popcorn popping methods, which I also wrote about in that comment, if anyone is interested in reading more. :P
I haven't seen Marmite at stores here -- I've only tried it once when I was in England and I don't recall liking it lol
Did you actually try it the proper, traditional way; super thinly spread on a buttered slice of toast or a crumpet? I ask because every time I have seen someone try Marmite on YouTube and such, they do it so wrong it's no wonder why it has such a bad rep. It's not meant to be eaten by the spoonful, or spread thickly on toast like you would peanut butter. :P
p.s. Germany apparently has its own brand of yeast extract spread called Vitam-R, which according to Wikipedia has a "smoother flavour" than Marmite or Vegemite.
I don't really remember the specifics of the experience in that much detail, but I did have an Englishman serving it to me on toast.
Ah, then you may just not like it. It is pretty divisive, so that's not entirely surprising. :P
I know what you mean, but I find any cheese is good enough for me. Manchego is pretty good umami cheese. You could also consider something like miso soup (which you can buy in little sachets) is salty and umami and takes longer to consume which is a positive for me.
oh hm something like miso soup hadn't occurred to me. I have some dried nori sitting around, I wonder if that would help scratch the same itch.
Not sure if this is what you're referring to already, but there's a style of nori made specifically for snacking, comes in little snack packs and is oilier and saltier than the type used for sushi/soups, etc. It's delightful.
The type I had was for sushi/soups and definitely had a bit too much of a leafy taste/smell for me to snack on by myself. I'll look around on my next Asian market trip!
How about going all in. Pimp it up with a small bit of honey.
Oh I used to love going to town on würzig Bergkäse with white wine.
I've changed to corn chips. Not the flavoured kind, not the supermarket kind, the legit corn chips pure mais from intentionally shops.
I paired it with some honey-roasted cashews tonight and I hella recommend.
I have absolutely sliced off pieces of parmesan to snack on straight, I get it :D
Are you a fan of olives? Green olives scratch my salty/savoury snacky itch. I'll often pair them on a little platter with a hard/sharp cheese (I saw your other comments already about cheddar, but I assume there are many european options), a cracker; also tasty to add crisp apple slices (dont knock it!), maybe a little honey mustard or other spread.
Another green olive vehicle is an iranian appetizer type dish,zeytoon parvedeh. Compared to that recipe, I like to chop up some of the olives when I make it so it's more spreadable.
Not OP, but I hate green olives. Kalamata olives, on the other hand, I can't get enough of! So even if green olives aren't someone's thing, they should give Kalamata olives a try since they're a completely different taste.
Just though of another salty snack food, tamari almonds. Not sure if they're easy to find already made where you are, but they're not that difficult to make from raw almonds and soy sauce.
They lack the pungency of parm, but are nicely savoury/salty, plus have the fattiness of almonds, and good crunch.
Unfortunately olives are one of a handful of foods that I can't handle for texture/food aversion reasons. Even though the flavor probably is something I'd like, I just can't get past the aversion.
How about pickled onions? Different texture to olives but hit a lot of the same taste buttons IMO, and they also go well with cheese.
I've liked pickled onions when I've had them, but that hasn't been super often (mostly as a garnish in the past). I know one of the food youtubers I sometimes watch really loves them though, so might be worth looking into!
Depending on what you dislike about the texture of olives, you may or may not like "wrinkled olives" (throumba), which have a very different texture and flavour compared to normal olives. But I get it if you don't/won't like these either. There are also spreads made of olives, which effectivelu have no texture at all, if that's something you might be into due to the lack of a texture.
Also, maybe pickles, but the sour rather than the salty kind?
Olive tapenade is a solid choice that also adds capers and anchovies to the mix. Great spread on crackers.
I don't love the taste of olives that aren't the canned black olives but I like pickles and other salty stuff and all that. I'm wondering if a tampenade or other olive spread might be a good way to try them again
Can't blame you, on average canned olives in general are subpar compared to the more "fresh" olives you can get by weight from some supermarkets in some olive-loving countries, but of course not everyone has that luxury. And of course it's even worse if the brine covers up the actual taste of the olives.
Olive paste tastes significantly taste noticeably different compared to normal olives, but your mileage might vary depending on the brand/kind of olive/other factors
Edit: I misread, part of the response is inaccurate
Sorry, I only like canned black olives, not green ones or "fancy" ones (like they're not green but they're briney). I like the taste of the canned ones, but the brine or something about those other varietals is too much for me.
So I keep trying every year or so, maybe a spread will hit the best olive notes without the mouth puckering sourness.
Weirdly, even though I otherwise love vinegar-y tastes and enjoy some other pickled foods, I can't stand the taste of pickles. Like, I'm one of those people who struggles to eat a burger that's had pickles taken off it bc of the little bits of taste they leave behind.
Apologies if this offends you, given your username.
It took me til my twenties to develop a taste for pickles and I keep hoping olives happen so I dip back in every now and then. I've finally found a difference between us! (Because snacking cheese is also my bag)
I'm almost thirty and still going strong on the pickles front, so it's nice to know we're not literally the same lmao
You did end up in Germany.
Perhaps the infection point is pickles vs olives 🤔
I would say, Germany is pretty up on pickles and sauerkraut (which tastes like pickles to me) so if that's the deciding factor, it's pretty ironic lol
Ok I do like sauerkraut on a Reuben so this might be our defining feature w(°ｏ°)w
I do understand it!
Maybe mushroom crisps?
Really aged cheddar, the kind that also gets the salt crystals?
I don't think the Germans appreciate cheddar to the same extent, but I'll sniff around the real cheese counter to see what they have. I've never heard of mushroom chips, I'll have to look around for them!
They're sometimes chips and sometimes crisps but usually they're freeze dried. Idk if they're worth doing in a dehydrator or oven instead.
Have you considered non-cheese options? Sometimes I eat teaspoons of miso paste for much the same reasons. There are a wide range of miso variants too, so if the first one you try doesn’t hit quite right, there’s a lot of space to explore.
Yeah, I was going to say maybe try some more fermented food. My first thought was kimchi but since they are in Germany maybe sauerkraut instead?
Weirdly, I love kimchi but hate sauerkraut. Though kimchi strikes the exact opposite note for me compared to parmesan, I'm in that for the acid and spice.
I've not ever really gotten into miso, I think I've only ever had miso soup at a hibachi place one time! So I think I'd need to try it to see what I think of it first!
Here in the states it's common to snack on low moisture mozzarella sticks. It's much cheaper than aged cheese.
I love some string cheese or babybel too, they're a great snack for the same time period of the evening, but they're definitely not as good on the salt and umami front.
I once accidentally aged some of those by forgetting they were in the cheese drawer for a year. They developed salt crystals and ended up being some of the best cheese I've ever eaten.
Aldi has other cheeses in stick form, too. I'd be curious to repeat my accidental experiment with the gouda sticks.
Differing Opinion... have you considered that your body is trying to tell you something. Parmesan Cheese is packed with micronutrients, and has a pretty high salt content (daily value wise), etc. You're body could be telling you it's deficient in sodium or another nutrient which is fueling your cravings.
Maybe pick other snacks that have some of the same nutrients and see if they satisfy the cravings. Wouldn't hurt to get some bloodwork done to see if you are deficient in area's of the essentials your body needs.
I've had bloodwork done earlier this year, so I'm relatively confident I'm not severely or chronically deficient in something dietary (unless parmesan has a connection to my hypothyroidism somehow), but it definitely could be that my body is low on something during these parmesan cravings! The only thing I can say for sure is it's not just salt, because other salty snacks like chips aren't appealing when I'm in this mood.
Question: are you cooking with iodized salt? Because most processed food doesn't use iodized salt, and a lot of home cooks these days use kosher or sea salt because they're the most widely available course cooking salts, and they're either never (in the case of kosher) or rarely (in the case of sea salt) iodized. I was starting to develop thyroid problems myself until I put two and two together on that, switched from kosher salt to iodized sea salt, and suddenly my thyroid numbers were good. The bloodwork didn't help, either. The standard panel checked my thyroid but not my iodine levels because they just assume everyone's getting enough iodine from the salt in their diet, which isn't really the case anymore.
I'm using kosher salt actually (imported too bc it's not really a thing here), so that's not a bad idea, but tbqh my diet also includes a lot of takeout so it'd be very dependent on what the local restaurants use. Most hypothyroidism in first-world countries these days is autoimmune iirc, so my doctors have never mentioned dietary iodine as a possibility, but it's not outside the realm of possibility that this could be contributing at least...
I've got too much kosher salt on hand to switch atm, but I think I'll use this as an excuse to cook some more seafood. That way even if it doesn't actually matter for my thyroid, I'll still get to have some tasty shrimp scampi or smth.
If I were you I'd definitely ask my doctor to check my iodine levels the next time I went in for bloodwork just to be safe. Here in the US it's something that's actually hard to get covered by insurance, but in Germany I'd expect it to be less of a problem. It really is a growing problem, and in developed countries in particular. It's a recent and gradual enough change that most doctors aren't paying attention yet, which means people are falling through the cracks. We're eating less bread and dairy and using less fine table salt than we used to, and those are the main foods that are fortified with iodine. On top of that, industrial farming is depleting the soils, so vegetables have less nutrients in general than they used to, including iodine.
You pretty much have to be eating seaweed or blood sausage on a regular basis to be getting enough iodine without having fortified salt, flour, or dairy added on top these days. And since you have known thyroid problems and you're using non-iodized salt, there's a good chance that's at least part of your problem.
Edit: Actually, scratch blood sausage. I could have sworn animal blood was a historically important source of iodine for inland people, but I must be thinking of some other nutrient because a serving of blood sausage only has 1% of your daily requirement.
if it's in bread I bet that's part of why the doctor hasn't thought of it -- Germans love their bread and I probably have a lot less bread in my diet than the average German. I just checked the label and the oat milk I use for my lattes (I'm not lactose intolerant, I just like it) does contain 15% one's daily iodine per 100mL, at least, so I now have a good reason not to switch to black coffee!
Plus we have a bunch of Nori around from when we made okonomiyaki with a friend, so another good excuse to make that ig!
I get my blood tested for thyroid hormone levels every three months anyway, so I'll bring up whether the doctor thinks iodine might be worth testing at my next appointment.
I'm not supposed to be eating a hundred of these a day? Slides plate behind me
Do you do any specific activity before the craving happens? I ask because I get a very specific craving for something sweet every time I do some strenuous activity like cycling or yard work. Doesn't matter what time of day or how hungry I am, if I spend a couple hours outside doing something exhausting, I come back inside and without fail my body tells me "hey we need some sugar asap". So maybe there's some activity that makes you crave saltiness/umami?
I haven't noticed any particular activity leading to it, other than the usual sitting and watching TV. The craving only happens at night though, so I bet there is something precipitating it. Wonder if it has to do with what else I've eaten that day...
Lots of Parmesan cheese commercials, perhaps?
But maybe keep a log on your phone or something. When you get the craving, jot down what you did and ate earlier in the day. Maybe there'll be a pattern... or maybe you just like Parmesan cheese, lol.
Also damn you OP, I read this thread early on in the day and had to spend the rest of my work shift craving a slice of cheese. I don't even have any Parmesan at home so I'll have to stop by the store later. You sure you aren't shilling for big Parma?
If I could get paid to schill parmesan cheese I absolutely would, but unfortunately here I am doing it for free.
If you're a vegetarian limited to what's available in German markets, it's kind of difficult to find something with the equivalent tang and crunch of the calcium lactate and amino acid crystals in Parmesan. Aged Comté or Gouda cheeses might come close, but aren't likely to be any cheaper.
Maggi is a soy-like umami-rich vegetarian seasoning sauce that's German-native.
Sauerkraut is crunchy and naturally umami-rich. Nutritional/brewer's yeast can be a tasty and cheap cheese substitute, good on popcorn. Porcini mushroom powder is expensive, but a little goes a long way - use it on pasta, or in soups, stews, and sauces.
If you're not a vegetarian, there's always Schinkenspeck, the equivalent of prosciutto. Expensive, but again, it's intensely flavored and you only need a tiny bit.
Ooh I'm not vegetarian so Schinkenspeck might not be a bad idea... honestly, having some sliced sandwich meat on hand might be the way to go for my midnight snacks when I'm craving umami, it'd probably be healthier than eating half a wedge of parmesan.
More German charcuterie for you - Landjäger is a dry-cured snack sausage (like the salami-style meat sticks favored by American hunters) that's pretty intensely flavored.
Ooh I'll take a look! German-specific stuff to look out for is always welcome.
Parmesan isn’t actually vegetarian, as for it to be called parmesan it has to have cow rennet.
Usually, however, you can find “hard cheese” which tastes basically the same without any rennet
Actually Parmesan is the non-protected term, and can be made vegetarian. The article you link notes that the protected term is Parmigiano-Reggiano!
What's available to @sparksbet in Germany may differ and like you said some may use even more distant terms like aged hard Italian style cheese or something.
My most recently consumed wedge was the Real Deal, with the official made in Italy seal and everything, but the similar subs aren't honestly that much cheaper.
Makes sense in Europe in particular. It does seem more common to find the knock offs in the US, partially because our respect for DOP and the like is minimal
How about garlic hummus on crackers?
This is my current go-to evening snack.
ooh this is a good idea, I love hummus
I wonder if you could find smoked whitefish salad? I think of it as an Ashkenazi Jewish food, but I know there is a lot of overlap with eastern European cuisine in general.
It's an umami bomb, very strong flavored, and awesome on crackers.
If you can find smoked fish, it's very feasible to make yourself https://www.sonyasanford.com/recipes/2022/4/13/whitefish-salad
I bet they sell stuff similar to this, I see little containers of similar spread with lots of mayo in the refrigerated section at the store. Not sure whether it'll be my bag but worth looking for.
Specifically, make sure you get the smoked stuff. Plain is much more bland.
Pistachios!
I always have a bag of pre-shelled, low-sodium ones in my desk drawer at work. I had to buy a little salad dressing cup that I fill up instead of eating them straight from the bag, because if I do that, I simply won’t stop.
The low-sodium ones still taste plenty salty to me, and the pistachio flavor, while not directly analogous to cheese, hits a lot of the same highs for me. If I could keep cheese at work I would, but I don’t have good fridge access, so pistachios are my shelf-stable go-to instead.
Ooh I used to really love snacking on pistachios back when I regularly bought them, I'll have to look for them here.
Oh I love some pistachios, plus I like having to work for my food so those, sunflower seeds, and the like are up my alley.
Flavored almonds might hit the need to though I'm less of a fan (except the cocoa dusted blue diamond ones, theyre not super sweet and mm so good)
I get roasted and salted sunflower seeds in the shell but unlike with pistachios, where the shell is really inedible, I've developed the (probably not great) habit of chewing and swallowing the shells. Only downside I've ever noticed is that if I overdo it without eating enough other stuff, future poops can end up Not Fun, but in more reasonable quantities it's honestly never caused problems.
Ooh I've had those cocoa dusted almonds before, I def shouldn't buy those often bc they're too tempting
I'll eat peanut shells but rarely sunflower shells just because of sharp angles. So uh, once again, basically twinsies.
lol yeah you gotta chew well and eat other low-fiber stuff or else those sharp angles become very relevant.
Do you eat meats? How about jerky or something cured like salami?
I haven't tried anything like that when I'm in this mood so idk if they'll scratch the same itch, but it's on the list of things to try!
OP its 2am and all i could think of reading your post is how i could fuck up a Landjäger right now.
This is pretty American, so maybe it doesn't make sense, but have you tried nachos? If you can get tortilla chips and melt even a mild cheddar over them, that can be pretty good on its own. The chips will bring additional saltiness and crunch. Pro tip: don't skimp on the cheese.
You can also add pretty much anything to them. I'll add salsa and sour cream (before cooking! It sounds weird but the hot sour cream is so good). Any leftover meat cut up small and sprinkle over the top is good.
You can make as much or as little as you want. I usually do 8 minutes at 300F on a cookie sheet in the oven. Eat them right away, while the chips are still crispy.
Seconding with quesadilla suggestion.
I'm pretty American myself, so no worries on that front. I hadn't thought of making my own nachos at home, but that's not a bad idea to try!
Can you lean in and do a quick jaunt to Italy and roll back a wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano instead? 😅
I do live very near a big Italian import store, so I bet I wouldn't even have to go that far... though storage might be a problem...
Wasn't sure if it'd be cheaper to buy in Italy with a cheap train pass or in the import store. But this just might be my Costco member self telling me to buy the bulk cheese because I know I'll eat it.
Speaking of they do have Parmesan wheels....
I should go tomorrow just to check.
Proud to be an American encouraging bulk purchases 🫡🦅🇺🇲 red tailed hawk screech of freedom
I do miss Costco. I don't have the space for most of the bulk stuff anyway... but I do have the American impulse to just hoard large quantities lol
To be fair my purchases are for about a month at a time and mostly staples and freezer meals, but... Sometimes you just need 18 sleeves of Ritz crackers.
Aged cheddars are pretty similar in a salty umami kind of way and should probably be available at a local store and (probably?) cheaper than parmesan.
Honestly, here in Germany, it's probably harder to get really aged cheddar. Though I suppose I could check the cheese counter at one of the bigger grocery stores in my area, it's definitely not in the cheese section in the smaller grocery store! Even relatively mild cheddar is surprisingly scarce here, since it's not the default cheese the way it often is in the US.
To add: a quick bit of googling pulls up a news article about the popularity of Kerrygold products in Germany, including Kerrygold cheddar. Their aged cheddar or a similar product would be exactly what I was thinking of. Though how it compares price wise to Parmesan I don’t know.
I was thinking there was likely to be some sort of aged English cheddar hanging around somewhere. I think I used to get a Monoprix store brand that was pretty good when I lived in France.
Kerrygold's cheddar slices and shredded cheese is pretty much the only cheddar available in the prepackaged cheese section at my local grocery store, but it's not very sharp -- it's more for a grilled cheese or something. It's possible they'll have some proper aged stuff at a store with a bigger selection or a proper cheese counter, though.
How about popcorn with brewers yeast/nutritional yeast and maybe some butter or salt and tamari/soy sauce? Should be possible to at least order a bag of nutritional yeast to Germany and that’s gonna be an easy umami heavy snack.
Not a bad idea! but since these cravings usually come at night they sometimes come after my wife has already gone to bed, which would be disrupted by popcorn popping. But when they're earlier on, this might work out!