Ever wondered how one of America’s favorite cheeses gets made?
I had the opportunity while I was studying abroad in Italy to be able to go on a field trip to a parmigiano reggiano processing plant. Here I was able to see the whole process of how those large wheels of parmesan are made! By watching everyone that works in the building you can tell that they love their jobs and what they do every single day. To have authentic parmigiano reggiano it typically comes from Emilia Romagna in Italy.
Here’s how it’s done:
To make the parmigiano reggiano the process starts the night before when the milk from the previous day is left to sit overnight. As the milk is sitting overnight the fatty part rises to the top where it turns into cream and then they can use that to make butter. The milk that’s left under that layer is then ready to be put into the copper bins that we saw on the day of the tour. The factory does keep some of the milk with the cream still and this is whole milk. This can be sold to cheese factories. The cheese maker decides how much skim milk and whole milk will be mixed together in the bins.
From here the milk is ready for the heating process. This must be done slowly. While this heating is happening they add the whey from the previous day. This mix is heated to 30 degrees Celsius. This is stirred and then needs to rest for about ten minutes so that it thickens. This gives the factory the curd. After the curd has formed from this rest period, it is broken up with a spino. This tool has been used in the cheese making process for many many years. Once the curd is broken up with the spino the milk is heated to 55 degrees Celsius. The curds will sink to the bottom at this temperature. Once this happens they can be removed from the cauldron. This usually happens after 50 minutes of resting on the bottom. The mass can be taken out with a wooden spoon and muslin fabric. Since the cheese is so large at this point it can be cut into two even halves.
The lumps are then placed into a plastic mold and weighed down. After the plastic mold lets the wheel harden a bit, but not all of the way, an insert is placed between the cheese and the mold so that the cheese will achieve its’ markings and pin dots.
The cheeses are placed on the wooden shelves that we saw to dry into the large wheels or they are cut up to sell in more personal sizes. They will stay on the shelves for one year.
After this they will be inspected and possibly given a fire branded stamp of approval for sale.
I love cheese, so this was such an amazing and interesting opportunity for me! And if you are wondering, yes, the entire building smelled like cheese.