Parmigiano Reggiano

Friday I woke up early and headed on up to Reggio Emiglia to Santa Lucia to see how they make the real, true Parmesan cheese.

Making parmigiano is a long process that starts with two parts: first, starting with milking the cows in the evening and letting it sit over night so that it naturally skims, and secondly mixing the skimmed milk with fresh milk from that morning's milking.

This milk is then poured into large copper vats, starter whey is added and also calf rennet- which is the special enzymes mammals have for digesting their mothers milk and this enzyme allows the milk in the cheese making process to separate the liquid from the solid. The milk's temperature is watched carefully around 91-95º F for about an hour.

The compacted final curd of the milk, muslin, is then split into two and placed into molds. It is then placed into a stainless steel mold which has the imprint of "parmigiano reggiano", the month, and the cheese plant where the cheese sits for 3 days in order to keep its form and marking. 

The cheese then must sit for another 20-25 days in a brine bath in order to absorb salt. After being salted it is brought to the aging room where it will sit for at least 12 months until--- a very long time. 

At the plant in Santa Lucia, I saw around 7,000 parmigiano wheels and a few of them were 10 years old! 

I sampled a 3 year old cheese and it was incredible, nothing like krafts parmesan cheese that's for sure!

Not to mention that all the cows are traditionally grass fed and cheese farmers argue that their cheese is best based on what their cows eat.