Hard cheese
Cheese with little moisture, usually long-aged, cooked and pressed, such as Parmigiano, Pecorino Romano and aged Gouda.
Also: pâte dure, grating cheese
A hard cheese is one that has lost much of its water, usually because its curd was cut small, cooked hot and pressed firmly, then aged for many months. It is dense, firm to the knife and often granular, and keeps for a long time. Examples include Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana Padano, Pecorino Romano, Sbrinz, aged Gouda, aged Manchego and the hard Himalayan churpi. Hard cheeses are the grating cheeses of the kitchen and carry intense, savoury, nutty flavours developed by slow breakdown of protein and fat. Definitions vary by country, but a hard cheese is generally one with less than about forty per cent moisture in the fat-free part of the cheese.