Parmigiano Reggiano Cheesemaking | Ep 5 How Food Is Made

Come see HOW PARMIGIANO REGGIANO CHEESE IS MADE in Parma, Italy!

In this series, we will explore How Food Is Made by visiting farms, factories and more to see how our food is made, and what it goes through before hitting supermarket shelves. After visiting where our food is made, we head back into my kitchen where we will create a delicious recipe together using the food we have seen being made.

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Timings
00:00 - Intro
00:17 - Part 1: How Parmigiano Reggiano is Made
00:23 - Milk for the cheesemaking & coagulation process
00:53 - Using the "spino" to break up the curds
01:34 - Heating the curds
02:04 - Tasting the curds
02:34 - Making the cheese balls
02:59 - Identification & shaping of each cheese
03:23 - Salt bathing the cheese
03:35 - Maturation of cheese
04:00 - Quality inspecting the cheese
04:07 - Becoming Parmigiano Reggiano
04:15 - Part 2: In The Kitchen
04:20 - Explaining the recipe
04:47 - Making the sauce
05:45 - Serving up the pasta with sauce
05:54 - Adding Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
06:13 - Outro

HOW PARMIGIANO REGGIANO IS MADE

Parmigiano Reggiano is produced exclusively in the provinces of Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna and Mantua and we are in Parma visiting a Parmigiano Reggiano dairy today. The milk from the morning and the previous evening is poured from this large vat into these bell-shaped copper vats. It takes about 550 litres 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 has lots of starter cultures, from the previous day’s processing.

The curd which forms is then broken down by the master cheese-maker into small granules using a traditional tool called “spino” which is the spiral tool you see them using here. After this, the vat is heated to 55 degrees centigrade and the curds sink to the bottom of the cauldron and form a mass together. After just under an hour, the cheese-maker cuts the cheese mass into two which become two cheese wheels. These two wheels are wrapped in a linen cloth and the cheese is then placed in a mould which will give it its final shape.

A casein plate with a unique and sequential alphanumeric code is applied to each wheel: it is its identity card which makes it possible to trace its entire production back to its origins, anytime and anywhere. After a few hours, a special marking band engraves the month and year of production onto the cheese, as well as its cheese factory registration number and the classic dotted inscriptions around the whole cheese. After a few days, the wheels are immersed in a saturated solution of water and salt. Then the cheese heads into maturation.

The minimum maturation time is 12 months, the longest among all the PDO cheeses, and only at this point can it be decided if each individual wheel is worthy of the name Parmigiano Reggiano. And then if it get’s the seal of approval, it can then continue its maturation up to 24, 36, 40 months and even longer.

After 12 months, the Consortium experts carry out a test called “quality inspection” on all the wheels: each wheel is tapped with a hammer and the trained ear of the quality inspector recognises any defects inside the cheese that may compromise quality. The cheeses that pass inspection are marked with the brand and become officially Parmigiano Reggiano. All identifying marks and signs are removed from any wheels which do not meet the PDO requirements.

IN THE KITCHEN

We are making my shallot & Parmigiano Reggiano tomato sauce and serving it up with spaghetti. This is delicious, easy and very summery. See the recipe below for this tasty pasta dish.

Ingredients (makes 500ml sauce)
250g cherry tomatoes
5 shallots, chopped finely (roughly)
3 cloves garlic puree
200g passata
200g water
25g butter

Add shallots and butter into a pan and cook until softened. Add tomatoes and garlic and cook until tomatoes are softening. Press down on any tomatoes that haven’t popped yet. Add pasta, water, salt and pepper and the rind of the Parmigiano Reggiano PDO. Summer on a low heat with the lid on for 20 mins, stirring after 10. Remove from heat and use a stick blender to blend. Serve tossed with spaghetti with generous gratings of more Parmigiano Reggiano and some basil on top. Enjoy!

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Thanks for watching!

Music from Epidemic Sounds. Credits to Storm Comms & the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium for making this video possible. Created, filmed, edited, voiced-over and produced by Gemma Sokol (@gemtakesfoodpics).

#parmigianoreggiano #parmesan #parmigiano