Costco Is Selling a 72-Pound Wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano, In Case You’re Interested

Have you always wanted your own personal 72-pound wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese? Because thanks to Costco, now is your big opportunity. Costco Deals Online has sounded the alarm, and Costco’s own site confirms: for a mere $899.99, you can get an entire wheel of 24-month aged Italian cheese delivered directly to your doorstep. The third and final bullet point in the product description perhaps sums it up best: “extravagant.”

But if you’re feeling extravagant, there could be no better purchase. Quality is basically guaranteed, as the cheese is highly regulated for quality and cannot be labeled as true Parmigiano-Reggiano without passing the rigorous inspections (more about that here). Nothing will feel as luxurious as digging into your own wheel each evening to top your pasta, bake into frico, or peel over your salad. Or, better yet, make your pasta directly in the wheel itself. 

The thing to be aware of, though, is that you are being extremely extravagant: it’s unlikely you will make it all the way through the cheese wheel without needing to toss large portions. Even the most voracious of curdophiles couldn’t keep pace to finish it. On Reddit, a cheese professional describes the lengths they go through at a restaurant — presumably going through the cheese much faster than you would at home — to keep it fresh and edible: first, he says that if you’re not an experienced cracker, you’ll lose a lot of cheese just by doing that wrong. Then there’s the sanitizing, wrapping, and rewrapping — something that cheese shops do constantly to keep their wheels in good working condition. Just remember, you’ll need to eat almost a pound and a half a week to go through it in a single year.

Or just throw a giant party with a few hundred of your closest friends and hand out hunks of cheese as party favors?
Buy Now: Kirkland Signature Whole Wheel Parmigiano Reggiano, 72 pounds, $900