Yellow gold

It wouldn't be fair to talk about the Black Gold which is produced in our region (and nowhere else in the world! - see my post of January 16th), without mentioning another unique product that the Emilian Apennines are world-famous for: "il Parmigiano-Reggiano", or "Parmesan cheese" in English. The word "Parmesan" again doesn't really live up to the truth because just like the Balsamic vinegar which is generally thought to originate from Modena, this particular cheese originates from Reggio Nell'Emilia and it is in this Italian province that you find the most and best cheese factories. Please, forget the powdery stuff that you can find in your (non-Italian) supermarket which tastes likes a bicycle tyre! This is made from the leftovers that no true Italian would dare to put on the table and is therefore sold for export, to the ignorant foreigners. The real Parmesan cheese is a superb-quality product and one of the finest cheeses in the world. But you'd probably already guessed that after I explained the difference between real Balsamic vinegar and the stuff that most of the non-Italians are used to. Italians are very proud of their national heritage and tend to keep it for themselves. Who are we to blame them? :-)

The Italian cuisine is basically "uncomplicated", a word that I certainly don't mean to use in a negative way. It's a cuisine that still carries a long tradition of poor people trying to make the best with what they'd got. But with these few and "simple" ingredients, they managed to create food worthy of a table of kings. The Parmesan cheese is no exception to that rule, on the contrary. It's a cheese that is the result of excellent craftsmanship and above all... a lot of patience, although not as much as with Balsamic vinegar which, as you may recall, can take up to at least 25 years to mature for the "gold label" brand.

Another unique feature about this cheese is that it's generally produced by a cooperative of local farmers and cheese-makers. Cooperatives are quite common in Italy and provide a lot of advantages, the most important one is that the cost for the factory and equipment can be shared. Also the farmers benefit because their salary becomes a part of the cheese sale, rather than having to depend on the ever-fluctuating price of milk. All people participating in the process have their share and hence benefit from this extensive cooperation. 

Early in the morning, the milk is collected and driven to the factory, where it's pumped into conical-shaped fermenting vats. The amount and the kinds of whey, the temperatures and the fermenting times are all at the discretion of the master cheese-maker and they all have their own little secrets. So again, like is the case with Balsamic vinegar, no two Parmesan cheeses are alike and some cheese factories have a better reputation than others. Christine and I have visited many factories and tasted many cheeses personally and we can only concur to that statement. All in all, we want to give our (foreign) guests nothing but the best and want to be absolutely certain that when we give an advice about which factory to visit that it's a very good one. The blokes you can see in these pictures are all highly skilled and produce some of the finest Parmesan cheeses that we've come across so far.

Next, the cheese becomes solid and is pulled out of the rest of the milk with a piece of cloth. 

 Then it is put into a double mould. The inner part (which you can see in the picture) is made of plastic and stamps the well-known dots, the name of the factory and date of production in the cheese. Around this plastic mould, a metal spring-mould is fastened which presses the cheese together and will give it its final shape.

The cheeses are then put into a bath of salted water for 20 to 25 days - again depending on the cheese-maker's experience. 

And then the moulds are removed and the cheeses end up in the storage room for at least twelve months. Although - personally - I always go for the 30-month cheese because its taste is so much stronger and spicier still. Every now and then the cheeses are checked by experts who can evaluate their quality by the sound of a small hammer tapping on the cheese. The "failed" cheeses are mercilessly pulled out of the shelves, branded as "insufficient quality" by means of long, parallel carvings on the crust and then... yes... usually sold for export. What do we know what these carvings mean anyway... :-)  

The result is a cheese which is almost a pity to grate and throw on your spaghetti Bolognese. No, it's a cheese which perfectly holds its own and goes down well with an excellent glass of Primitivo or Montepulciano. 

Salute!