Italia's yellow gold: Parmigiano Reggiano
Parmigiano Reggiano is one of the oldest and richest cheeses
known in the world, the King of Cheeses. Its nutritional and organoleptic
features render this cheese a unique and superior product, appreciated
worldwide and absolutely indispensable to whoever wants to make authentic
Italian dishes.
Not to be confused with Grana
Padano, made in a similar way but produced in a wider area and with much less
regulations, Parmigiano Reggiano is made from unpasteurized cow’s milk,
partially skimmed by surfacing, without the addition of additives save the
exception of salt.
To produce a Parmigiano Reggiano cheese wheel, which must weigh between 30 kg
and over 40 kg, are needed approximately 550 litres of milk. Its minimum
maturation period must be 12 months, during which the cheese develops the
typical intense aroma and flavor, Parmigiano Reggiano is in fact known to be
very high in umami, the “fifth taste”.
Its area of production includes only the provinces of Reggio Emilia, Modena,
Parma and Bologna to the left of the Reno river and Mantua to the right of the
Po.
Parmigiano Reggiano bears the D.O.P.
certification (P.D.O. protected designation of origin) at EU level since 1996.
These seals of guarantee are
particularly important when the product is found on foreign markets, if the
name is protected in the European Union, in other countries it is not as
protected. In fact, Parmigiano Reggiano is the most imitated Italian cheese in
the world and one of the places where the greatest quantity of counterfeit
Parmigiano is produced is the USA, where several companies sell a cheese
similar to Parmigiano under the name Parmesan cheese.
Parmesan is an ancient cheese, its origins date back to the 12th century,
when the Cistercian and Benedictine monks of the area between Reggio Emilia and
Parma managed to create this unique cheese that could last over time.
The first evidence of the
commercialization of caseus parmensis (Parma cheese) dates back to 1200,
in a notarial deed drawn up in Genoa in 1254. By the 13th-14th century, Parmigiano
Reggiano had already developed its modern aroma and characteristics, which it
preserved until today.
Boccaccio cited this delicious
cheese in its Decameron in 1348,
imagining a whole mountain of grated Parmesan cheese in a district called
Bengodi (name based on a word play that roughly translates as “enjoy yourself
well”):
“(...) and there they bind the vines with sausages, and a denier will
buy a goose and a goslin into the bargain, and on a mountain, all of grated
parmesan cheese, dwell folk that do nought else but make macaroni and ravioli,
and boil them in capon’s broth, and then throw them down to be scrambled for.”
Parmigiano Reggiano is indeed a very valuable cheese. Did you know that there’s a bank in Italy that doesn’t handle just money but also cheese?
Credito Emiliano (Credem) has been offering a cheese maturing service for 70 years and also provides storage credits on the forms themselves. This year marks the seventieth anniversary of Magazzini Generali delle Tagliate, the company in the Credem Group that offers this cheese maturing service to producers and agro-industrial companies and the storage of cheese in the warehouse as a pledge in guarantee for bank loans. Many farmers don't have the spaces or the right conditions Parmigiano cheese needs to age properly, and this is where Credem comes in to offer a helping hand. The precious cheese wheels in their bank are being kept in climate-controlled safes, guarded by infrared cameras and alarms. The company stores in its maximum security warehouses approximately 500,000 forms of Parmigiano Reggiano for a value of 220 million euros.
Thanks to the many generations of master cheesemakers who have helped maintain its unique characteristics unchanged since the Middle Ages, today we can still enjoy the authentic flavour and peculiar properties of Parmigiano Reggiano. An extraordinary product that not only is delicious but also healthy and very well tolerated by those who have digestive problems, since it does not contain lactose and contains a high number of enzymes that are functional for initial digestive activities that are beneficial in cases of gastric dysfunction, helping to process food in the stomach.
We can consider it a national treasure!