Parmigiano-Reggiano | Adventures with Alyssa

“Senza patienza non andrai al paradiso, non sarai nel paradiso,” Anna remarks as she motions upward. Immediately she lowers her eyes, shakes her head and adds, “senza patienza andrai nella terra.” Anna is one of my lovely Italian mothers here and her words have been my motto for this semester … “Without patience you will not go to heaven, you won’t be in paradise. Without patience you will just go into the earth.”

Getting to know Parma has been much more difficult than learning Florence was, but I have to keep reminding myself to be patient because I still have two months here, plenty of time to get to know the city completely. I know I’m here to STUDY abroad but class is getting in the way of my cultural experience! I spend much more time in the classroom here than at BC (which I never expected would happen). At the end of the long day of classes (9 to 4 with no lunch break on Thursdays… ahh!) I’m usually too tired to go out and explore Parma, especially because it’s so cold! I’m glad there are cultural experiences built into our time here so I get to experience Parma through my classes. It makes studying fun! Last week our History of Parma class took us to a Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese factory where we learned all about the process of making the cheese and the economic implications it’s had on the region.

Fresh milk comes into the factory twice a day, early morning and night. The milk from the night is stored in large containers (not shown here) where the fat separates overnight. That milk is naturally skimmed and then mixed with the morning milk which has not been skimmed to create a half-and-half like mix that goes into these large cone-shaped vats. The man here is checking the granulation of the milk after natural whey starters and natural rennet is added.

heat is then added to expel the water from the granules

The heat causes the granules to sink to the bottom and form a giant mass that will eventually form the cheese.

The mass of cheese is lifted up…

…then cut in half…

… and then hung to dry.

The cheese is then placed in these molds for 2 to 3 days.

This second mold will hold the stencil and the cheese together for a day to give the cheese its outer markings, labeling the specific date the cheese was made along with other required factory information and seals. After this the cheese will be placed into one more mold to give it the curved shape. (You can see the date of this cheese written on the top… 10-10-11 or October 10, 2011.)

Cheese is immersed in a salt water solution for a little less than a month, and it’s turned everyday to make sure that the salt enters the cheese evenly.