FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019 • COOK’S COUNTRY 31PRODUCT TASTINGPROVOLONE IS UNFAIRLY
regarded as the middle child of Italian
cheeses: neither as punchy and popular
as Parmigiano-Reggiano nor as mild
and widely used as mozzarella. Yet
iconic sandwiches such as the Philadel-
phia cheesesteak and the New Orleans
muff uletta would be incomplete without
slices of this aged cow’s-milk cheese; it’s
also at home in pasta salads, stromboli,
cheese bread, and even quesadillas.
Most of us know provolone as a
young, slightly soft cheese that is very
mild in fl avor, but aged provolone
can be sharp, almost bitter, and have
a crumbly, semihard texture. In Italy,
the former is known as provolone dolce
(“sweet” provolone) and is aged for
less than four months, while the lat-
ter is called provolone piccante (“spicy”
provolone) and is aged for up to three
years. What makes all provolone simi-
lar, however, is the way it’s produced.
Cow’s milk is heated with cultures
and enzymes until the curds separate
from the whey. The curds are strained,
salted, and then plunged into hot water
to make them fl exible. Once removed
from the water, they are stretched until
they become smooth and elastic. If
the method sounds similar to the way
mozzarella is made, that’s because it is.
However, unlike mozzarella, provolone
contains enzymes (added for fl avor), is
aged, and is almost always made from
cow’s milk (traditional mozzarella is
made from buff alo’s milk).
Venture into a specialty cheese shop
or an Italian deli and you may see
provolone cheeses being aged in the
traditional way: hung by ropes from
the ceiling, similar to the way pro-
sciutto and other cured meats are hung
for aging. The ropes used to secure
the cheeses eventually give some of
them a characteristic bell-like shape.
However, the provolone cheese sold at
most supermarkets rarely resembles its
traditional counterpart: You can buy
it in shrink-wrapped wedges, presliced
in packages, or sliced to order at the
deli counter.
For our tasting, we focused on sliced
domestic provolone, since we call for
slices more often than wedges in our
recipes. We chose fi ve products from
top-selling, nationally available cheese
brands—four packaged presliced
cheeses and one cheese that we had
sliced to order at the deli—priced from
$0.38 to $1.15 per ounce. We tasted the
cheeses plain and in stromboli.
Tasters were able to identify clear
diff erences when they tried the cheeses
plain, but those diff erences were hard
to notice when the cheeses were melted
in stromboli. To home in on how the
provolones behaved when melted, we
added a third tasting, in which we tasted
them all in simple cheese quesadillas.
Ultimately, we can recommend every
cheese in our lineup; they were all
smooth and pliable in texture—
perfect for layering onto sandwiches—and melted easily. While they varied
a bit in fl avor, none tasted bad. Our
favorite cheeses balanced mellow, milky
fl avor with just a hint of sharpness and
had subtle nutty, earthy, and savory
notes that added complexity.
We looked at the cheeses’ ingredient
labels to see if we could identify what
set some products apart. All the cheeses
had the same amount of fat (5 grams per
serving) and similar ingredients. Two of
the cheeses had “natural smoke fl avor”
added—presumably for complexity—
but it was so subtle that many tasters
didn’t even pick up on it. Those who
did were split—some liked the slight
smokiness, while others preferred a
more neutral-tasting provolone.
Instead, we found that good fl avor is
a function of age and salt. Not all the
manufacturers would tell us how long
they age their provolones, but amongthose that did, it ranged from two weeks
to longer than two months. The prod-
uct that was aged for only two weeks
ended up at the bottom of our rankings;
tasters thought it was very mild, border-
ing on bland. Provolones that were aged
longer ranked higher.
Our favorite cheeses also had more
sodium, which helped amp up their
fl avor. Sodium ranged from 105 to
190 milligrams per 21-gram serving.
The cheese with the least sodium was
overly mild despite having been aged
for two months. Our top-ranked cheese
had the most salt of all.
Though any of the cheeses in our
lineup will work just fi ne, our favorite
was Organic Valley Provolone Cheese
Slices ($6.89 for 6 ounces). This pro-
volone had a balanced, mild fl avor that
adapted well to recipes, plus a hint of
savory saltiness for added complexity.American Provolone
This mild-mannered Italian-style cheese fi nally gets its chance to shine.
by Lauren Savoie
RECOMMENDEDOrganic Valley
Provolone Cheese Slices
Price: $6.89 for 6 oz
($1.15 per oz)
Aged: 2 months
Packaging: Presliced
Sodium: 190 mg
Comments: Our winning provolone
was “pleasantly tangy,” with “subtle
sharpness” and “nutty,” “grassy”
notes. Its high salt content intensi-
fi ed the fl avor.Kraft
Sliced Provolone Cheese
Price: $4.00 for 8 oz
($0.50 per oz)
Aged: Proprietary
Packaging: Presliced
Sodium: 166 mg
Comments: This cheese contains
natural smoke fl avor, which tasters
said gave it a “meaty,” “smoky”
fl avor and an “unexpected” aroma.
A few thought it tasted more like
gouda than provolone.Applegate Naturals
Provolone Cheese
Price: $4.99 for 8 oz
($0.62 per oz)
Aged: 2 months
Packaging: Presliced
Sodium: 177 mg
Comments: Tasters found this
cheese “creamy” and “a bit sharp,”
“a little like Swiss cheese.” Many
picked up on a slightly “bitter”
minerality. Overall, it was “great for
both snacking and melting.”Sargento
Sliced Provolone Cheese
Price: $3.49 for 8 oz
($0.44 per oz)
Aged: 2 weeks
Packaging: Presliced
Sodium: 149 mg
Comments: It was no surprise that
this “subtly smoky” cheese also
contained natural smoke fl avor. A
few tasters thought it was “a little
too mild.”Galbani
Provolone Cheese
Price: $3.00 for 8 oz
($0.38 per oz)
Aged: Proprietary
Packaging: Sliced to order at deli
Sodium: 105 mg
Comments: This provolone, which
is available sliced from the deli,
has a “mild,” “sweet,” and “buttery”
fl avor. Because of its low salt
content, some tasters thought it
was a bit “dull.”American Provolone versus
Italian: What’s the Diff erence?
Tasters noted that the American-made provolones we tried in our blind
taste test were “mild” and “mellow” with a soft texture. To see how they
compared to imported Italian provolones, we purchased a provolone
piccante aged for more than a year and a provolone dolce aged for four
months and tasted them against our winning American provolone, which
was aged for just two months. The fl avors, textures, and colors of the
three cheeses were very diff erent. The darker yellow provolone piccante
was hard and crumbly and tartly sharp. The creamy yellow Italian dolce
was softer and mellower but still “funky” and “sharp.” Tasters noted that
the two Italian cheeses would be “a good choice for a cheese board.”PICCANTE AMERICAN
DOLCE
Our Favorite