Have you ever had the chance of entering into a cheese factory, where Parmigiano Reggiano cheese is produced?
We have had this experience and it’s been enchanting to know the processing techniques and the origin of the most famous among the Italian cheeses.

Parmigiano Reggiano cheese has a definite geographic origin: it began to ‘multiply’ in the valley of Enza river, that separates the province of Parma from the province of Reggio Emilia.

The origin of this beloved cheese dates back to the Middle Ages, thanks to Benedictine and Cistercian local monks, who boosted its production. So Parmigiano, a transportable cheese with a long life and a marked but never strong flavour, spread beyond the local boundaries.

Nowadays the production area includes Reggio Emilia, Parma, Modena, Bologna (west of the Reno) and Mantua (south of the Po).

The recipe for the production of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese is still the original one, which needs the whole milk of the morning milking mixed with the previous evening’s milking of bovines fed with local fodder. This milk is raw-worked to keep its precious nutritional features, then, after the addition of rennet calf, it is cooked at 55°C and put in provided moulds.

These Parmigiano Reggiano wheels weigh between 25 and 40 kg: they go to the salting and, finally, to the ripening, that lasts from 12 months to 36 months (for the best cheese).

The digestibleness and the genuineness of this cheese are very high, because of the long period of ageing and the elements that characterize it. So, it is the ideal food for children, adults and old people.

Well, Parmigiano is an old deliciousness, which arrived to us thanks to the ability of the master dairymen, who have enabled us to have this excellent cheese as a guest on our tables and in our kitchens for centuries.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 25th, 2007 at 9:34 am and is filed under italian cooking. 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.