Parmesan cheese shakers

[Home_Town_Pizza]

Does anyone have any tips on keeping parmesan cheese from clumping up in a shaker? I keep a shaker of “Pizza Crack” - a 10-1 mix of parmesan/romano to kosher salt - by the cut table and sprinkle it on every pizza, pizza sub, calzone and mozz sticks that go out. It seems lately, the past couple months, I’ve really had a problem with it clumping up after sitting out for awhile. I thought maybe it’s just the heat and humidity of summer, but last summer was worse and I don’t remember having this trouble before. Any ideas to keep this from happening? Could it be something different with the cheese? We use pre-grated bags of Supremo Italiano from Rest Depot. I know some of their products are hit and miss, but again, we had great results for a year and half. Just wondering if it could be a change in the product itself, or if there are any ideas to keep it free flowing. Thanks!

 

[pizzanow]

Same problem, my shakers have marble-sized balls of parm in them. Also thought it was the heat but didn’t have this problem last year. I use Roma’s label that comes in those plastic round containers.

 

[Patriot_sPizza]

we blen our ‘crack’ with basil & black pepper…goes on b4 the pie goes in the oven…stays on the oven…

 

[Tony_Maronni]

What is the receipt of your (Pizza Crack)?

 

[smiling_with_hope]

We don’t put the typical shakers out- only hot pepper flakes. We use the top grade Parmigiano Regiano,/Pecorino Romano cheeses that we cut off the wheels, Sicilian oregano on the stalk - all imported from Italy and grate/apply them when the pies come out of the oven. If anyone asks we tell them the pies are in balance when they come to you. We let people know we use these ingredients and the cost of them. No one has complained to date. Walter

 

[George_Mills]

Some restaurants put rice in salt shakers to resolve that problem.

I don’t think that will work in a shaker with much larger openings.

George Mills

 

[GotRocks]

all of our cheese shakers hit the cooler each night, and standard procedure is to grab a stainless steel skewer at the start of each day and bust up the grated cheese in the shakers.
If someone realizes an easier solution to this, please share

 

[Home_Town_Pizza]

Yeah, we mix it in a small plastic Cambro container and store it in the cooler with a snap lid. Each day when we open, we fill the shaker from it and each night at closing, we dump it back in the container and put back in the cooler. It seems to be clumping while it sits out.

It’s not left out for general use. It sits beside the oven (but aren’t in an overly hot area) so it can finish each pizza hot out of the oven. Just weird that I’ve never had this happen before. Maybe I’ll try a different brand.