Parma

One Reason You Come to Parma – Parmigiano Reggiano

Parma

Nov 232022

November 17, 2022

The City of Parma is lovely but you come to Parma for Parmigiano Reggiano, Prosciutto di Parma, and Aceto Balsamico.

We spent one full day with Stefania of Cooking with Stefania, and I mean a whole day. We began in a Parmigiano Reggiano factory, proceeded to Stefania’s house to cook lunch, then visited a Parma Ham factory and her family farm that produces Balsamic Vinegar. We began at 8:30 in the morning and the sun was well down when we parted ways. It was a glorious, educational, and incredibly tasty day.

This post is all about cheese.

Parmigiano Reggiano

Many cultures around the world are trying to protect their native foods and Parmigiano Reggiano is no different. Parmigiano Reggiano cheese is a product with the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). Cheese produced according to the rules of the organization is the only cheese entitled to bear the Parmigiano Reggiano mark and, therefore, the wheel must display all the marks required for identifying and distinguishing the product.

The most important is the very first step. Only raw milk produced in the area can be used to produce Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Nothing can be brought in from other areas, this includes any type of food given to the cows. There are some 3000 farms in the Parmigiano Reggiano area.

The Italian Frisona is the most common breed among Parmigiano Reggiano producers. Imported from Holland, it is known as Friesian because the original stock is found in the Dutch region of Friesland. The first cattle were brought to Italy at the end of the 19th century. In the 20th century, cattle from Italian breeding farms were introduced, thus Italian Frisona. The other types of cows found in the region are White Modenese, Brown Cow, and Vacche Rosse.

The funny thing is, you will never see cows driving around the area. The land must be used to harvest the food for the cows and is too valuable to waste letting cows graze. Cows will be found inside large concrete barns that you begin to recognize once someone explains this all to you.

The minimum maturation for Parmigiano Reggiano is 12 months (the longest minimum maturation for any PDO cheese), and 18 months for export, but Parmigiano Reggiano reaches its height at approximately 24 months and yet it can mature from 36 to 48 months, or longer.

The milk from the morning and the previous evening is poured into the traditional upturned bell-shaped copper vats. It takes about 145 gallons of milk to produce each wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano. The milk slowly and naturally coagulates with the addition of rennet and a whey starter, which come from the previous day’s processing.

The curd must reach the proper consistency as determined by an experienced cheese maker.

Testing the consistency by hand

Once the curd is the proper consistency it is broken into miniature globules using a traditional tool called “spino”.

Breaking down the curd with a Spino

Before going any further the master cheese maker tests, by hand, if the curd has reached the perfect consistency.

The Master Cheesemaker

Then heat is introduced bringing the milk to 130 degrees F, causing the cheese granules to sink to the bottom of the cauldron forming a single mass.

Adding the heat

After about fifty minutes the cheese maker lifts the cheese up using a linen cloth, then ties it off onto a crossbar for easier access.

This large mass of cheese is cut into two parts, wrapped in the typical linen cloth, and placed in a mold that will give it its final shape.

Cutting the cheese into two separate pieces

The 2 separate pieces are easier to see once the remaining liquid is drained from the vat

The cheese is originally placed into plastic molds

A casein plate with a unique code is applied to each wheel making it possible to trace every wheel of cheese back to its origins at any time and from anywhere.

The wheels are eventually placed in metal molds with wooden tops

After a few days, the wheels are immersed in a salt solution salting the cheese through osmosis.

After 12 months, every wheel of cheese is tested by the Consortium. Each wheel is tapped with a hammer, and the ear of an expert has the final say.

The conforming wheels are marked with the hot-iron brand and become Parmigiano Reggiano. We won the lottery the day we were at the factory. Stefania said she had only seen the process twice in all her time as a guide, and there was the branding man (not the inspector, he had already done his job) marking the wheels that will be considered good enough to carry the Parmigiano Reggiano name.

Packaging the Cheese at the factory

While everyone considers Parmigiano Reggiano as a grated cheese on pasta, the truth is, I prefer it broken off into chunks so I can pop them into my mouth and actually get the grainy texture and the subtle flavors. Add honey or 40-year-old balsamico and it is heaven.

A little something interesting…if Parmigiano Reggiano is aged for at least 12 months the lactose breaks down making it a lactose-free cheese.

This particular factory also makes Ricotta and all unused milk by-products are fed to the pigs, which is another part of the business.

Preparing Ricotta for packaging

A few more pictures from the branding process.

Two More Reasons to Visit Parma – Prosciutto di Parma and Balsimico

Italy, Parma

Nov 232022

November 2022

I have already discussed the tour of Parmigiano Reggiano, but on the same day spent Cooking with Stefania we visited two more food production locations.

Prosciutto di Parma

It was in 100 BCE that Cato the “Censor” first mentioned the extraordinary flavor of the air-cured ham made around the town of Parma in Italy. It is still a gift of the gods.

The hams are made from the rear haunches of the pig. The curing is controlled carefully so that the ham absorbs only enough salt to preserve it. By the end, a trimmed ham will have lost more than a quarter of its weight through moisture loss, helping to concentrate the flavor.

Producers of Prosciutto di Parma receive fresh legs from authorized slaughterhouses on a weekly basis; the average weight is around 33 pounds. However, I have heard they are attempting to increase these to around 35 – 40 pounds.

Hams are being rolled in for processing

After a quick trim, the legs are salted by a maestro salatore, (salt master): the pigskin is covered with humid sea salt, while the muscular parts are covered with dry salt.

The Trimming Table

The Salting Machine

The leg is then refrigerated at a temperature ranging from 33°F to 4o°F, with a humidity level of approximately 80% for about a week then gets a second thin coating of salt which is left on another 15 to 18 days. depending on weight. Salt is the only preservative used in the processing method.

Next, the hams hang for a period ranging between 60 and 90 days in refrigerated, humidity-controlled rooms, at 75% humidity where the meat darkens.

The hams are washed with warm water and brushed to remove excess salt and impurities, then hung in drying rooms for a few days.

Now the hams are hung on frames in well-ventilated rooms with large windows that are opened when the outside temperature and humidity are favorable. The weather of Parma allows this air drying, and it is what many say makes Prosciutto di Parma, Prosciutto di Parma. By the end of this phase, which lasts about three months, the exposed surface of the meat has dried and hardened.

It wasn’t a good day to have the windows open but this is the exterior of the drying area.

The pin in the neck says this is good enough to go on to certification

The exposed surfaces of the hams are softened with a paste of minced lard and salt in order to prevent the external layers from drying too rapidly.

This woman has been doing this job since she was 18 years old.

At the end of the aging period, which is by law at least 1 year starting from the date of first salting (and some may be cured as long as 3 years), a horse bone needle, which rapidly absorbs the product fragrances, is inserted in different parts of the ham and smelled by experts looking for impurities.

I couldn’t resist buying one of the bone needles

Parma ham is highly regulated and to bear the name Prosciutto di Parma it must bear the Ducal Crown.

Aceto Balsamico

Making Balsamic Vinegar is a lesson in patience. The grapes are crushed, producing a must, then boiled down to one-half or one-third of their original volume. Only Trebbiano, Lambrusco, and Ancellotta grapes can be used in the production of Balsamic Vinegar of the coveted Modena or Regio Emilia PDO. The must is poured into barrels that have been rinsed with boiling vinegar and left to age for a year.

At the end of the first year, the now-syrupy liquid is put in wooden kegs.

The wood used varies and each wood gives the Balsamic a unique flavor. Woods include chestnut, ash, juniper, cherry, mulberry, and traditional oak.

During the aging phases, tradition calls for the barrels to remain open at the “cocchiume”, the traditional hole in the center of a barrel.

Usually, (but not always) a battery of wooden barrels for the production of traditional balsamic is made of an odd number, between 5 and 9 barrels which vary in their capacity. The size of a traditional set of barrels goes from a capacity of 18 gallons used at the beginning down to a capacity of as little as 3 gallons for the final stage.

A battery of barrels of varying sizes

The aging process of Balsamic Vinegar DOP of Modena and Reggio Emilia requires a minimum of 10 years. The process requires temperatures above 68 degrees F to activate the necessary bacteria; these temperatures are also necessary for the evaporation of excess water. At the same time, cold is necessary to avoid excessive evaporation to allow sedimentation of unwanted solid residues on the bottom of the barrel.

These climatic conditions are continually found in the Provinces of Modena and Reggio Emilia, which are characterized by cold winters and very hot summers. So while the area is known for its Balsamic from professional bottlers, you will find many home attics serving as vinegar cellars for families and friends.

Every year the vinegar is decanted into smaller barrels. If the finished product of the last barrel of the battery has aged long enough to be considered ready. The remaining content from the penultimate barrel is moved into the smallest, sometimes the penultimate receives what remains in the third, and so on. An extra large barrel is kept with the must over the years in order to continually fill the largest of the battery.

The age of the Balsamic is key. A ten-year aged bottle is fine for salads, but considering the price of the older years, the usage becomes important. Just a few drops of a 40-year Balsamico is absolutely divine over a chunk of aged Parmigiano Reggiano cheese or stirred into a panna cotta.

Italy, Parma

Nov 232022

November 19, 2022

Parma is a university city and one of the largest cities in the Emilia-Romagna region, with a population just under 200,000. The city is of course famous for Parmesan cheese and Parma ham, and it is the first Italian city to become a UNESCO heritage site for Gastronomy.

The city was founded by the Romans in 183 BCE and rebuilt in the Middle Ages and then ruled by bishops from the 9th century.

It is the home of the Italian flag or il Tricolore.

There are three main attractions in town, and our hotel was one block from all three, and since we were here for cooking and food tours that was about all that I saw of the city. I am absolutely sure it had so much more to offer, but sometimes, food takes precedence.

The Cathedral of Parma

The Parma Cathedral is an Italian Romanesque cathedral highly decorated with frescoes by Renaissance painter Antonio da Correggio.

Ceiling frescoes of Parma Cathedral

The Baptistry

The city council of Parma commissioned Benedetto Antelami to build the baptistery in 1196.

The inside of the baptistry contains sixteen arches, forming alcoves each with a painted scene done during the 13th and 14th centuries. In the dome, sixteen rays come out of the center of the ceiling and correspond to the arches.

Sadly these are not true frescoes, and the dome has been painstakingly restored with syringes and spatulas. A project that most likely will occur over and over again.

Palazzo della Pilotta

The Palazzo della Pilotta was built around 1583, during the last years of the reign of Duke Ottavio Farnese. It was never finished making for an odd viewing of blank walls and ornate window frames.

There are several reasons to visit the Palazzo, but in my opinion, the major one is the Teatro Farnese.

The theater is almost entirely of wood in the Italian Baroque style. It is the prototype of the modern playhouse. It is also the first surviving theatre with a permanent proscenium arch. Construction began in 1618 by Giovanni Battista Aleotti for Ranuccio I Farnese, and it officially opened in 1628.

At one end of the large, rectangular wooden structure was a stage area designed for deep-perspective scenery.

The sides of the stage were decorated with paintings and statues set into niches.

A large U-shaped open area (pit, or parterre) was used for dancing, royal processions, and other courtly entertainments; it could even be flooded for water spectacles.

The Farnese was renovated in the early 1700s by Filippo Juvarra and rebuilt following its destruction during World War II.

Another feature of the Palazzo della Pilotta is the art gallery. It goes on and on and on but if you are patient you will happen upon Leonardo da Vinci’s, Head of a Woman (Aka “La Scapigliata”), ca. 1508, oil on wood.

Piazza Garibaldi was designed in Medieval times to be the center of political power.

Violetta di Parma

This is the window display of one of the original stores that sold Voletta di Parma by Ludovico Borsari. I did not know that Parma was world famous for perfume at one time until our cooking teacher told me. Why the violet? No one is really sure how it became the symbol of Parma, but it likely dates to the 17th century when the Duke of Parma introduced the species into Italy from Spain.

Ludovico Borsari, (Parma 1846 -1928) helped develop the perfume industry of Parma around the Violetta. Borsari made perfume that was economically within the reach of most women, and that made Violetta di Parma world famous. The Borsari brand still exists as part of a multinational corporation based in Milan.

Scattered along the streets of Parma is some wonderful art

The ancient tower of St. Paul was turned into a war monument dedicated to those who died in all the wars,

This post does not do the city of Parma justice. It is a very comfortable town to navigate, with a very human scale. There are wonderful restaurants everywhere and streets that beg you to meander.

Driving from Parma back to Bologna to the airport one could, but shouldn’t, miss the Ferrari factory. The museum is the only place where photos are allowed, and truth be told, the factory tour is just climbing on a bus and driving around the massive acreage that exists to create these works of art on wheels. The cars are made from beginning to end in Maranello, and almost all within the Ferrari factory grounds.

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Worth remembering:

Hotel in Parma: Palazzo Dalla Rosa Prati

Restaurant in Parma: La Forchetta

Restaurant in Ferrara: l’Oca Giuliva Cucina e Cantina