Krystal and I went on a Field Learning for our Food, Culture, and Society class on September 24th. We went to a Parmigiano Reggiano cheese factory where all the footage is from. We also saw a Prosciutto di Parma factory, and a place where they make Aceto Balsamico (Balsamic Vinegar). Below are all the steps that are shown in the video.
-The milk from the evening milking is left out over night and the fatty parts of the milk rise to the surface -The skimmed milk from the night before and the milk from the morning milking are combined and fermented whey is added -After 10 minutes, the curd is broken up in granules, first by hand with a large whisk looking tool, then by machine (not shown in video) -The mixture is then cooked at 55 degrees Celcius for a few minutes, then the cheese granules sink to the bottom of the cauldron, forming a single mass -After 30 minutes the mass is gathered, cut in two, wrapped in cloth, and placed in the mold that will give them their final shape -The cheese rests in this initial mold for three days -Then is it transferred to the metal mold shown for 15 days -The wheels are then placed in a salt bath for 15 days (the salt bath were those large pool looking things) -Then they are dried out and then finally placed in the large room shown to age -The wheels age for a minimum of 12 months and a maximum of 32 months -The more aged the wheel is, the more expensive it is
As the cheese is aged longer, it becomes darker in color and is more grainy in texture. We got to sample 15-month cheese and 24-month cheese and the 24-month was out of this world amazing. Each wheel weighs about 90 pounds and is worth around 500 Euro. That large room towards the end is where the cheese ages and I calculated how many wheels there were in that room times how much each wheel was worth, that one room alone had well over 2 million Euro worth of cheese in it!!
Hope that helped in providing some context for the video. Thanks so much for watching!!