you can’t damage the cheese

April 12, 2025 11:43 AM

“We hit all of the surfaces of the cheese, and from the sound of the hammer against the surface we can imagine in our mind an Xray of the wheel and how it is internally. For a perfect wheel with no defects, the paste is completely compact, no empty space. If there are structural defects, such as little fissures or cavities, we can hear that the sound of the hammer is different,” explained Stocchi. from Why Tap a Wheel of Cheese?
posted by chavenet (16 comments total)

🧀
posted by HearHere at 11:58 AM on April 12 [1 favorite]

I guarantee you, I can damage the cheese. With my teeth...

Never knew this was a thing. Very cool.
posted by Windopaene at 12:43 PM on April 12 [3 favorites]

I am very disappointed that article had only pictures and no sounds that I can hear, and then someone else can sample and make an album out of.
posted by aubilenon at 12:50 PM on April 12 [3 favorites]

Super Cheesy Hits from K-tel Records!!
AS SEEN ON TV
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:53 PM on April 12 [4 favorites]

Hey now...

K-tel's 20 Power Hits was one of my first albums.

And I cannot find it. Think I saw a copy somewhere, that seems to be the cover I remember, but can't find a track listing.

Knock Three Times, Green Eyed-Lady, something from the Iseley brothers. My DuckDuckGo-fu is failing me.
posted by Windopaene at 1:11 PM on April 12 [1 favorite]

Windopaene, was it this?
posted by ashbury at 1:26 PM on April 12 [2 favorites]

Yes, that was totally it!

Thank you!

I had forgotten Dragging the Line was there. Thought it was Hooked on a Feeling.

Love Dragging the Line...
posted by Windopaene at 1:31 PM on April 12 [1 favorite]

.... And I thought to myself, "a little fermented curd will do the trick," so, I curtailed my Scouting activites, sallied forth, and infiltrated your place of purveyance to negotiate the vending of some cheesy comestibles!
posted by lalochezia at 1:53 PM on April 12 [2 favorites]

"It's a bit runny..."
posted by Windopaene at 2:04 PM on April 12 [3 favorites]

Because it is there.
posted by Lemkin at 2:16 PM on April 12 [1 favorite]

I love that "battitori" is a job title and that there are 24 professional battitori tapping away at 4 million wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano a year. (Wait, that's 166,667 wheels per battitor(?) per year or like 700 a day or 86 an hour... assuming every wheel gets tapped and 6 weeks time off... that can't be right.)
Also real Parmigiano Reggiano makes my most basic pasta dishes into something special- and I am ever so grateful for this level of care in its production.
posted by evilmomlady at 2:28 PM on April 12 [4 favorites]

86 an hour

The article says they can tell what’s what within 6-7 seconds, so maybe they can tap 700 cheeses a day!
posted by aubilenon at 3:48 PM on April 12 [2 favorites]

Also: "I curtailed my Walpoling activities"...
posted by Windopaene at 6:04 PM on April 12 [3 favorites]

I'm The Wrong Kind of Cheese, and I approved this message.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 6:27 PM on April 12 [8 favorites]

It's amazing how often percussive inspection is a valid, non-invasive and quick method of sampling the state of something. Checking tire pressure, determining if a bolt is tight, listening for a cracked casting, determining if an anchor or nail is fully set, ascertaining the ripeness of a watermelon -- the sound or rebound of a strike can tell you a lot.
posted by Mitheral at 8:39 PM on April 12 [5 favorites]

battitori: sees wheel of cheese
"I'd tap that"
posted by ginger.beef at 5:46 PM on April 13