This report finds me in Italy, traveling the back roads of Emilia-Romagna, the province, which run west to east, just north of Tuscany. This is a mostly tourist-free zone, and home of some of the best foods in life -- including Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, prosciutto di Parma and Balsamic vinegar.
In my multi-part report (Hey! Napaman has to get out of
the Valley every once in a while to explore other winemaking regions of the
world… or he’ll get stale as a day-old sourdough baguette…), I am starting with
a visit to an artisanal producer of one of my favorite cheeses.
On the road to Caseficio San Lucio
The San Lucio Dairy is about 20 km southeast of Parma. The head cheese-maker here oversees production everyday, 365 days a year, and has not missed a day in 40 years on the job!
On average, this small coop produces 23 wheels of semi-hard gold each day. A wheel of Parmigiano weighs about 80 pounds.
When cheese leaves this coop, and is sold to the first of a line of middleman, or to a broker, or to an aging agent who will further-age the cheese, the coop charges about 7.30 Euros (about $11) a kilo.
Here's what I discovered today... about how they make The
REAL DEAL....
Milk taken from cows yesterday afternoon was delivered to the cheeseworks last night; it sat overnight, enabling the cream to rise to the top; this morning, the cream was skimmed off. This now day-old skim milk was mixed this morning in equal parts with fresh milk just delivered to the facility. This results in a milk mixture that is, in total, about 2.3% fat. By the time this milk is converted into finished cheese, the fat content will rise through evaporation to a level of about 28.4% butter fat -- still much less than the 60-75% level of butter fat in soft cheeses.
Here the cheese-makers remove just-curdled milk solids in a cheese cloth...
They let the curdled mass rest about 15 minutes....
They cut the mass in half with a special tool (below)... resulting in two blobs, each of which will be molded into a familiar wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano.
There are 4,300 milk farms in the region supplying 445 cheese makers. To be a True & Proper Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, there can only be four ingredients -- milk, rennet, whey, and salt.
And there are other restrictions and regulations in place: The milk must come from one of four different breeds of cow, and must be BHT-free. The cows must eat a certain diet that is free of pesticides, etc.
Each blubbery blob is nestled into a plastic mold to give initial shape to the cheese. This soon-to-be-cheese rests in this plastic mold one day....
Care is taken to fold the cheesecloth EXACTLY over and around the wet cheese so as not to leave marks or indentations on the surface of the cheese.
After one day in the plastic mold (above), the cheeses are transferred to a meshed, stainless steel mold (below), in which they rest another two days.
The famous markings on the rind of Parmigiano-Reggiano are imparted by a reverse stencil, which has been slipped around the edge of the wheel, and which is pressed into place by the tightened exterior stainless steel collar.
The cheeses are then transferred to a rack, which is immersed in a salt brine bath; the cheeses spend 20 days immersed in the brine, which starts the curing process.
Cheeses, removed from their saltwater bath, are housed on shelves in a tall cellar kept at a constant temperature and at 80 percent humidity.
They will spend one full year here before qualifying for
"Parmigiano-Reggiano" designation. (No Parmigiano-Reggiano can be
released into the marketplace without at least one year's aging.)
During their year of aging, the cheeses need to periodically be turned over and brushed to remove any spores or bacteria, which might think about growing on the surface of the rind.
Hence the cheesemakers turn loose a robotic "flipper" in the cellar. The robot turns over every single cheese in this cellar every fifth day for a year! It also automatically polishes the rind of each cheese, to remove undesirable bacteria.
I saw the robot in action and laughed when I imagined what it would be like the day the robot goes nuts, creating an I Love Lucy-like moment, flipping, hurling, and flinging 80-pound cheese wheels around the room, as though they were Frisbees.
Some special selection cheeses are aged further; I tasted 20-, 30- and 44-month-old Parmesan cheeses this week and agree with the experts that the cheese tastes best at 30 to 36 months (2.5 to 3 years). At this age, the cheese has a sweetness, a freshness, a noticeable tang, and a stunning Parmigiano-finish, which starts to diminish as the cheese gets yet older than this.
Outside San Vitale Baganza, site of the cheeseworks, I visited a hamlet called Torrechiara, noted for an old castle (closed, like everything else here on Mondays)... but the views from the mountain-top were spectacular....
Another mountain view....
And yet another....
There! the Parmigiana Express ride is over. You may remove your seat restraint, stand up and head to the nearest bar (like everyone here does) and treat yourself to a glass of sparkling red Lambrusuco wine (... not so much...) and a plate of perfectly aged 30-month-old Parmigiano-Reggiano. Major yum.
I couldn’t have done this trip, or understood much of what the cheesemaker said, without the expert help of Cristiana Clerici, director of public relations for the Parmigiano-Reggiano consortium of cheesemakers, who spent hours translating for me and explaining the cheesemaking process in great detail.
I trust this shorthand version for napaman.com readers will make Cristiana happy and proud!
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