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I feel as though It’s been a week ,and yet only a mere 48 hours have elapsed. Life is a blurry as the green and red-speckled countryside that reels past my bus window. Our days and nights are stuffed with learning, walking, riding, "Oooo" & "Ahhhh"-ing, eating, and of course drinking. My every second is filled with as much life as there is flavor in fork-full of food here. I can hardly keep up with it all!
This morning has been the square on our itinerary that I have been looking forward to most: "Tour Parmigiano Reggiano Factory". AHHHHHHH!!!! Can you Believe it? I'm in heaven. Even the front door looks like a wheel of cheese. . . Good thing nobody here is aware of my love for all things dairy.
We gather in a cube of white corrugated mettle, and transform through flying film and blue booties into a cross between cling wrap mascots and mad, lab interns.
Our fabric cover feet are nearly silent as we make our way through the stainless passageways . White noise surrounds of pumps and gears make send chills down my back. A kind of dusty aroma, with a hint of bovine musk and layers of creamy sourness and salt are the only hints that this place is for the alchemy of cheese.
I feel as though ancient secrets are being revealed to me. I wonder at the Italian syllables that escape the mouth of the slate-haired man with the red collar. As his every word is transformed from foreign to native, my skin tingles with excitement and my mind reals with wonder and a kind of reverence.
The Secret Alchemy of Parmigiano Reggiano
It takes 17 liters of milk 1kg of cheese. Just one wheel of this stuff weighs a whopping 35kg which is equivalent to just over 77 lbs. Each year they produce 60,000 wheels. Just imagine the sheer volume of milk that goes through this place, it makes me weak in the knees. (I am in love with milk- it is most definitely my favorite food.)
To begin the process, deliciously fresh, lovely, wonderful, raw cow’s milk is heated to 96.8F mixed with rennet, a coagulating substance collected from the stomachs of calves. This process creates bacteria which gives the cheese it’s distinct aroma.
After the cheese is coagulated one of the strong men here takes a paddle and scrapes the bottom of these shimmering vats. Then frabric is used to gather the mass of cheese . As a group they swing the blob back a fourth flip it and tie it to a pole. This is the beginning of the cheese’s shape.
At this point we tasted the cheese. Sadly it was like eating mild flavorless rubbery sponge. Not so wonderful yet I guess.
Next the cheese spends some time getting a “massage” as we were told. 1 day in a plastic form the three days in this metal form that is tapped with a mallet and fliped. This odd ritual actually improves the weight of the cheese.
Next the wheels goes to the salt spa, aka a giant metal pool filled with saltwater and shelving the holds cheese. This spa treatment is what gives the cheese it’s flavor which develops over time. Interesting tidbit here: 100 kg cheese absorbs 1 kg salt and releases 5 kg water.
Cheese fresh out of the spa
The cheese must then be aged 60 months
At the end of this process the cheese each wheel of cheese is inspected with a tiny mettle hammer. Only the best cheese, with the perfect thud can be considered top quality Parmigiano Reggiano. When a wheel doesn't sound right the rind is marked with lines, indicating it's lower quality. This is why it is so important to buy cheese with the rind on.
The rind not only indicated the quality, but is brandedwith a seal of the producer.
The seal. . .
Believe it or not, but small chunk of parmigiano reggiano cheese has more ca
lcium than a glass of milk.
After our visit, we were part of a wheel cutting, which was so cool. Then we indulged in what I’m sure was way too much cheese. Sadly we did have to leave, but we took about 30 kg of cheese with us so it wasn’t so bad. ;)
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