The Best Grated Parmesan Cheese, aka the Perfect Powder for Your Pasta

The best grated parmesan cheese probably comes from a pricey wheel that spent months chilling in an aging room in Italy, but that’s not what we set out to find in this taste test. We were looking for the best versions of a more populist product: powdered parmesan. The parm of pizza places and pasketti parties—the parm of the people. We the people (here at Sporked) tried seven different packaged powdered parmesans, and while we may all equally love shelf-stable grated parm, we did not love each powdered parm equally. We did, however, find five worth recommending. A parm for every person.Yes parm, no fowl (which also happens to be what I call eggplant parmesan).

But we weren’t just going on vibes alone; we looked for specific attributes that make a parmesan the cream of the cheese. We were looking for grated parm that’s fluffy rather than rubbery. We were looking for flavor that’s salty, savory, and ever so lightly funky—not plasticky at all, and not so funky that it sounds like the beginning of the “Cha-Cha Slide.” Essentially, we were looking for powdered parmesan cheese that tastes like parmesan—the real deal. Let’s get shakin’! (Oh and if you’re looking for the stuff that doesn’t come in a plastic shaker in the pasta aisle, we’ve ranked that kind of parmesan cheese, too.)

The following article contains affiliate links that may generate a small commission to us when you make a purchase through the link. Learn more about how we work with affiliates here.

Best Funky

Mama Francesca Parmesan, Asiago & Romano

Walmart

Mama Francesca’s blend of parmesan, asiago, and romano cheeses tastes like the grated parm you know and love but a bit funkier. If you like the nutty funk of a pecorino romano, this is the best grated parmesan to seek out. The texture is a bit tougher than some of the other parms that made our list, but if you are a fan of all things funky fresh, that tradeoff might be worth it for you.

Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart

Rating:

6/10

Sporks

Best Budget

Great Value Grated Italian Style Blend

Walmart

I’ll be real with you: This Great Value blend of grated Italian cheeses doesn’t have the best texture, possibly because it’s lower fat. But hey, it’s cheap, accessible, tastes good for the price, and once it’s on your spaghetti, you absolutely won’t notice the texture too much. For this taste test, I was taking in full-on spoonfuls of all these bad boys, but since y’all aren’t cheese-guzzlin’ psychos like me, I think you can safely sprankle your sketti with this grated parmesan cheese and skate away happy.

Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart

Rating:

6.5/10

Sporks

Best Mild

Kraft Grated Parmesan Cheese

Instacart

Kraft powdered parm is the fluffiest brand we tried. It’s like a spoonful of cheesy cotton candy and we were here for it. It’s also the most mild option we tried, but don’t let that scare you off—it’s still plenty salty and cheesy. The flavor reminded me of those freeze-dried cheddar chips or the cheese skirt on a burger. There isn’t a whole lot of funk, so if you “need the funk/gotta have the funk,” go with one of the next couple options instead.

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

7.5/10

Sporks

Best Parmesan-Romano Blend

Kraft Grated Parmesan & Romano Cheese

Instacart

Of the Kraft parmesan cheese varieties we tasted, this parmesan-romano blend tasted the most like real, freshly grated parmesan. It’s less salty than Kraft’s Three Cheese option (which didn’t make this list) and a bit more salty than Kraft’s regular parm (which did make the list…you just read about it). This has a great balance of salt, a slight funk, and good ol’ fashioned parmesan flavor. Plus, it has that tell-tale Kraft fluffiness, which we love. This stuff is like cheesy fake snow (cheesier than fake snow, in fact), and it’s the best grated parmesan cheese to buy if that sounds good to you.

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

Best of the Best

4C Crafted Cheese All Natural Parmesan Romano

Instacart

Not gonna lie, if you put 4C and some freshly grated parmesan in front of me, I’m not so sure I could tell the difference. The brand advertises that this has no cellulose powder, no additives, and no preservatives, so it really just tastes like good grated parm. It is salty, a little bit funky, and it has a chewy texture that manages not to be rubbery. If realism is what you want in your powdered parm, 4C is your guy. If you want all the parm flavor but in a fluffy powder, Kraft is the best grated parmesan cheese for you. We happen to like both, but we had to give the best powdered parmesan cheese title to the most parmesan-like powdered parm out there. So Congrats, 4C, and enjoy resting on your laurels—you are the parmesan that took home the cheddar.

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

9/10

Sporks