Parmesan Cheese

© Copyright 2009. All rights reserved and enforced
Parmigiano Reggiano

Parmesan Cheese is made from raw skim milk. Calf Rennet is added to the milk, and the milk heated until it curdles. The curd is cut, heated to 125 F (51 C), stirred, then heated further up to 131 F (55 C.) The curd is packed into moulds lined with cheesecloth, then removed from the moulds and soaked in brine for a month. The whey leftover from the process is used to feed pigs, which then become meats such as Mortadella and Parma ham. 4 1/2 gallons (US) / 16 litres of milk are needed to make 2 1/4 pounds (1 kg) of the cheese.

The cheeses are aged on wooden racks for anywhere from 8 months to 3 years. "Stravecchio" (extra-old) Parmesan is aged over two years. "Vecchio" (old) is aged from 1 1/2 to 2 years. These two are the cheeses sold and used for grating. Younger Parmesan cheeses are called "parmigiana auova." They are served shaved into thin curls. Very few of these young Parmesans are sold outside Italy. Most Parmesan is sold as "vecchio."

Cheese makers often leave wheels of Parmesan cheese with their bank as collateral. The banks have special vaults to store the cheese in, so that it can age properly while they are holding it.

The wheels of aged Parmesans are straw-coloured. The cheese is crumbly and has a slightly salty taste. The rinds are not eaten or grated; they are discarded.

Parmesan must be made in Parma or Emilia-Romagna. As of 2004, there were at least 900 small cheesemakers in the area joined in a consortium. Any Parmesan-type cheese produced outside that area has to call itself a "grana."

By law the cheese can only be made between 1 April and 11 November.

When Parmesan is cut into small wedges for retail sale, it must by law be cut so that some portion of the rind is showing. This allows consumers to see the trademark on the trade and see that it is the genuine article. Coincidently, it also means that the inedible rind becomes part of the weight that consumers have to pay for.

Cooking Tips
Recipes that insist that you use freshly grated Parmesan right in cooked dishes are just plain silly. For starters, the Italians don't use Parmesan for cooking, they use Grana Padano. Secondly, it's like tossing very expensive sea salt into pasta water. Which is to say, it's like sprinkling your conversation with French words: silly. Italians usually reserve Parmesan as "finishing cheese" to put on the table; for cooking, they'll actually use grana cheeses instead. Grana padano is considered by Italians just a small step down from Parmesan.

It is very handy to keep in your fridge a tub of already-grated Parmesan, Grana or Romano in your fridge -- whether you buy it already grated from a deli-counter you trust, or buy a small slab and grate it up yourself in a food mill or food processor. For a quick evening meal or weekend lunch on your own, it can't be beaten. Boil up a few handfuls of pasta, drain and stir in some olive oil and some of the Parmesan. Salt and pepper to taste (if you don't have a pepper-mill for freshly-grated pepper, don't fret, but this is one of those times that it's actually worth it.) Presto, pronto, instant nummy pasta meal. Whenever you have other oddments in the fridge such as olives, fresh or sun-dried tomatoes in oil, bits of leftover ham, bacon, chicken, you can toss this in when you have them and as the mood strikes. This already grated cheese is never as nice as Parmesan that you grate yourself on the spot, but there will be times when boiling water and stirring in olive-oil and ready-to-go grated cheese is as much as you can be asked to do after arriving home late from work in the evenings.

You elevate this to a dish you can serve to others, by pitching in a sprinkle of parsley for colouring along with freshly-grated pepper.

All Foodies dismiss, of course, the dried, ground Parmesan-style cheese that comes off supermarket shelves in little shake-ee cardboard containers. Dismiss it though they may, someone's buying it: it's still a huge seller. It may be a sign of Foodie maturity to enjoy what you like, and let others enjoy what they like. After all, so much of what one likes in life depends on what you're used to. While you're busily dismissing the cheese someone else may buy, no doubt someone else is dismissing your taste in haircuts.

Substitutes
Asiago d'Allevo, Grana Padano, Queso Cotija, Romano or Sbrinz.

Nutrition
Per tablespoon, grated: 2g fat

Equivalents
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese = 2 ounces = 50g

Storage
Wrap Parmesan in waxed paper, then in tin foil or plastic wrap and refrigerate. Wrapping it in plastic wrap alone will make the cheese sweat.

If little patches of mould appear, the cheese is still fine to use: just scrape them off and use the cheese.

It freezes well if frozen whole; the flavour doesn't survive so well if frozen grated.

History
On a good day, people date Parmesan back all the way to the ancestors of the Romans, the Etruscans.

Literature & Lore
"Sir W. Batten not knowing how to remove his wine, did dig a pit in the garden, and laid it in there; and I took the opportunity of laying all the papers of my office that I could not otherwise dispose of and in the evening Sir W. Pen and I did dig another, and put our wine in it; and I my parmazan cheese, as well as my wine and some other things." -- Samuel Pepys, 4 Sept 1666 (readying himself for the Great London of London, as it approached his house.)

Also called:
Parmesan (French); Parmesan (German); Parmigiano (Italian); Parmesano (Spanish); Queijo parmesã (Portuguese) Top...