Paul & Lauren’s Travels

We’re all familiar with the bile-like aroma that eminated from a white powder some adult convinced us tasted much better than it smelt, as we dusted it over our spag-bol as a child; I’m talking about Parmesan cheese. Parmesan cheese, as we know it, is to Parmigiano Reggiano as instant coffee is to freshly brewed espresso; mass production to craftsmanship. Allow me to introduce Parmigiano Reggiano. 

For generations the inhabitants of Emilia Romagna, Italy have been producing and perfecting this amazing hard cheese, and it all starts with the dairy cow. Our host and manager of this farm, Alfonso, graciously took the morning to show us the complete process starting with our bovine friends right through to tasting the finished product. What an amazing experience!

Parmigiano Reggiano is a sort of brand name for cheese that is produced under official supervision in the region of Emilia Romagna. Within the region there are many producers of Parmigiano Reggiano, all with their own unique twist or angle, but all produced with in strict guidelines of production and quality. Alfonso’s production is unique because he has his own dairy and the milk goes from his cows straight into the cheese. A mixture of full cream and skim milk goes straight into the giant vats that are warmed and stirred.

Active bacteria and rennet are added in stages to the warm milk and it curdles, at which point the master of the cheese begins to break up the curds with somethig resembling a large whisk. He does this with an almost ceremonial technique to ensure that the curds are of an even size, this later affects the structure of the cheese and it’s unique texture. At this point the curds look and taste like something similar to Mozzarella.

The curds are then gathered up from the whey into a linen cloth and form a large ball which is then split into the two pieces which will eventually become wheels of Parmigiano. The whey is later sold to pig farmers that mix it with grain for feed, as part of the process of producing cured hams such as Proscuito.

The balls of curd are then deftly coerced into cylindrical molds, which give the cheese its basic shape, and left to rest so that the residual whey drains away leaving only the curds.

After some time resting, the curds will be wrapped in a sheet imprinting the distinctive “Parmigiano Reggiano” brand and an official, unique serial number from the consortium. A large weight is placed on on top of the mold to ensure the curds compress into the desired shape and size.

To give the cheese its unique rounded sides it is stored yet another mold, to further dry, before it’s placed in a bath of salty water and left for many weeks to cure. During this time the cheese is both preserved and slowly absorbs the salt that gives it its unique taste.

Every bank has it’s safe and every Parmigiano factory has it’s vault. Once the wheels have finished bathing in their own version of the sea they are moved next door into the vault where they will age up to 36 months. But the work doesn’t finish there, the wheels needs to be dusted and cleaned every week, fortunately for Alfonso they have a machine to do that task.

As the cheese ages it acquires a golden, waxy skin that when ripe will have a uniform sound when tapped. Once the cheese has made it to this point, and only then, an official from the consortium will come and brand the cheese “Parmigiano Reggiano”. In some rare cases the a few wheels will be kept aside for additional aging up to five years. These wheels are kept for the family to crack open at Christmas or on a special occassion; sorry, these are not for sale but I can tell you, from experience, they are delicious!!

Our morning with Alfonso was unforgettable. It was amazing to see the whole process of producing Parmigiano Reggiano and to gain an appreciation of how it’s production is truly a craft that requires dedication and passion.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 17th, 2009 at 3:55 am and is filed under Food and Produce, Italy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.