Parmegiano-Reggiano

Ahh, Parma! In the Emiglia Romagna, capital of amazing food, home of Parmeggiano-Reggiano cheese, Procuitto de Parma, and traditional Balsamic vinegar. All of these products have DOP protection, which means each individual item is examined and approved by the consortzio before being labeled as genuine. Up first, Parmegiano-Reggiano cheese.

The cheese is made from cow milk, a blend of skimmed milk from the morning and whole milk fromthe night before. Each of these vats is conical, half recessed into the concrete floor. The exterior is stailess steel, with a copper lining. 1,200 liters of milk is contained within. One full vat produced two wheels of cheese, so there are 600 liters of milk used in the production of each wheel of Parmegiano-Reggiano cheese. The time of day the cows are milked, the exact diet they are fed, and the area in which they are raised are all strictly controlled by the consortzio.


A very small (about 4 tablespoons) amount of rennet is added to each vat, and a long, whisk-like device is used to break the curds into very fine grains by hand. Once the curdling is complete, a paddle is used to reach into the vat and pry the cheese curds up from the bottom of the cone. Then, the two guys pictured above very carefully slip linen under the mass, and tie the linen to a pole.The mass at this time weighs upwards of 100 pounds. The pole is then slowly propped up by slipping shivs under each side until the cheese is out of the liquid to drain. Nothing is wasted- the leftover whey and fat are made into butter.

Also, they do not refer to this process as "making cheese", they instead say they are helping to "deliver a newborn Parmegiano-Reggiano cheese into the world". That's quite a lot of dedication.

After draining, the cheese is placed into these adjustable plastic molds, with a plastic "stamp" lining the inside. The stamp has the Parmegiano-Reggiano mark all over it, and also the date and producers of both the cheese and the raw milk. A blank spot is left in the center of the stamp, to leave room for the brand if the cheese is later approved by the consortzio. The rope around the mold is to slowly allow the tightening of the plastic, as the cheese has weights placed on top and begins the process of losing water. 40% of the weight will be lost during this process.

After some time in the plastic, the stamped cheese is moved to these perforated metal molds, where they are again weighted and more water weight is lost.

After being removed from the metal mold, the wheels are placed in saline vats, that are monitored to hold a consistent salt level. The water circulates out and is re-salted before being pumped back in. The wheels must be turned each day, and are still quite heavy at this point. There are no preservatives in true Parmegiano-Reggiano, the rhind is formed only through this salinization process, and osmosis seasons the inside of the cheese, hence the very careful monitoring of salt levels.

When the rhind has formed and the cheese has spent the appropriate time in the salt solution, it is dried and moved to this room. The wheels are allowed to age on these shelves, and you can see in the above picture the levels of oxidization that give the rhind its distinctive color. The cheese must be cleaned daily, as it sweats moisture and fat during the aging process. A special robot moves on a track down each isle, sensors guide it to the exact location of the wheels, which are lifted, brushed on all sides, then the shelf is cleaned, and the wheel placed back in its spot. There are only 4 large shelves like this in the warehouse, and they contain well over 2,000,000 dollars worth of cheese. It smells like heaven.

The wheels are each individually checked with a specially made hammer for maturation- if the sound is consistent all the way around, then the cheese is mature and has no imperfections, and only completely perfect wheels are given the brand of the consortzio. If even a tiny imperfection is found, it will not recieve the consortzio brand, and I mean as small as 1/4" air bubble in the giant wheels. If they are not top quality, they are marked by having a ring carved around the rhind, if they are of third quality (larger or more imperfections) they are sold as grana parmegiano. Second quality is the rhindless cheese you see sold (still for a very high price) in American supermarkets.

In my hand above are three cheeses of different ages. The top one was aged for 12 months. It has a smoother, milky, buttery flavor with a slightly chewy texture. The center cube is 22 months old (this is only the time spent on the shelf in the final warehouse) and you can see the color has darkened a bit, and white spots begin to form. At this point the cheese is still buttery, but is starting to develop a nutty sweetness. The bottom cube is 28 months old, and you can see the dramatically darker color, and the prominent white spots. The cheese is quite hard at this point, and amino acids within have developed into a crystalline formation, which gives the cheese its characteristic crumbly texture with bits of sugar-like crunch between the grains. At this point, the cheese has developed a deep, nuanced nuttiness, earthy flavors, and the butteriness has dissapeared. And by the way, all three were outstanding.

I was really giddy after seeing all of this, and the day just kept up with this amazing pace. Up next: Procuitto de Parma.

Oh, by the way, please ignore any spelling errors. My blogspot account's spell-check feature re-set itself to Italian, so if I try to run it, it tells me that I've spelled nearly everything wrong... except for the scattered Italian. Too funny!