Parmesan

• 1. Introduction

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  Parmesan, called Parmigiano Reggiano in Italy, is a hard, granular cheese made from cow's milk, and it has been nicknamed the king of cheeses. About 3.6 million wheels are produced every year, which comes to roughly 137,000 metric tons. Making them takes about 18 percent of all the milk produced in Italy. That is an enormous claim on a single country's dairy herds. Yet a cheese sold as parmesan in many parts of the world may have little to do with the original. So what makes a wheel genuine? Who decides, and how do they check? Why does a cheese this old still attract lawyers, graders, and even criminals? And what happened to it when the ground shook across the region where it is made?

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• 2. Making a Wheel

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  The milk of the morning milking is blended with the naturally skimmed milk left from the evening before, giving a part-skim mixture. It is unpasteurised and comes from cows traditionally fed only on grass or hay. The mixture is pumped into copper-lined vats, which heat evenly and add copper ions to the milk.

  At 33 to 35 degrees Celsius, starter whey full of heat-loving lactic acid bacteria goes in, followed by calf rennet. The milk curdles in 10 to 12 minutes. Machines then break the curd into pieces about the size of rice grains. The cheese-maker raises the heat to 55 degrees Celsius with careful control, and the curd settles for 45 to 60 minutes.

  Each vat holds 1100 litres of milk and produces two cheeses. The compacted curd is gathered in muslin, divided in two, and placed in molds. At this stage the curd for one wheel weighs around 45 kilograms. The whey left in the vat once fed the pigs that became prosciutto di Parma. Their barns usually stood just a few metres from the cheese rooms.

  A round stainless steel form, tightened by a spring-powered buckle, keeps the cheese in its wheel shape. After a day or two the buckle is released and a plastic belt is wrapped around the cheese. The belt is imprinted many times with the Parmigiano Reggiano name, the plant's number, and the month and year of production. The form is buckled tight again, and the imprints take hold on the rind in about a day.

  Then comes a brine bath lasting 20 to 25 days. The tanks are saturated to near-total salinity with Mediterranean sea salt. Salt is the only additive allowed, and the only starter permitted is natural whey culture, together with calf rennet.

  The wheels move to aging rooms in the plant and stay for 12 months on wooden shelves. Each aisle holds shelves 24 cheeses high and 90 long, which makes 2,160 wheels per aisle. Every seven days, each cheese and the shelf beneath it are cleaned, and the cheese is turned. A finished wheel stands 18 to 24 centimetres high, measures 40 to 45 centimetres across, and weighs 38 kilograms.

  In 2015-60 percent of the workers in the industry were immigrants from India, almost all of them Sikhs. Their work is considered fundamental to keeping traditional production going. Native Italians have recently shown renewed interest in these jobs. But none of those wheels may carry the official mark until an inspector has examined it.

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• 3. The Hammer Test

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  Italy has 25 master graders, each known as a battitore, a word that literally means batter. When a wheel completes its year of aging, the Consorzio del Formaggio Parmigiano Reggiano sends one of them to inspect it. The grader taps the wheel with a small hammer, informally called a martelletto, listening for cracks and voids hidden inside. Each wheel takes about six or seven seconds.

  Three grading categories decide the wheel's fate. Wheels in the top category are heat-branded on the rind with the Consorzio's logo. Those in the second tier keep the mark but also have lines or crosses marked all the way around the rind. That warns shoppers they are not getting top-quality Parmigiano Reggiano. Cheese in the third category has every rind marking stripped away.

  The testing starts much earlier. Each wheel must meet strict criteria in the early weeks of aging, while the cheese is still soft and creamy. Only then does it earn the official seal and a place in storage.

  Special seals mark the authentic product. They show the dairy's identification number, the month and year of production, a code for the individual wheel, and stamps showing how long it has aged. The minimum age is one year and the average is two. An expert from the Consorzio usually uses the same hammer sound test to judge whether a wheel has finished maturing. Those seals matter because the name itself is guarded by law.

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• 4. Guarding the Name

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  Parmigiano Reggiano takes its name from two of the Italian provinces that make it, Parma and Reggio Emilia. Parmigiano is the Italian adjective for the city and province of Parma, and Reggiano is the adjective for Reggio Emilia. The cheese is also made in Modena and in the part of Bologna west of the River Reno, all within the Emilia-Romagna region. One more area lies in Lombardy, the part of Mantua on the south bank of the River Po.

  All producers belong to the Consorzio del Formaggio Parmigiano Reggiano, founded in 1928. Besides setting and enforcing the standards for the protected designation of origin, it sponsors marketing. In Italy, a governmental decree created the Consortium, which holds exclusive control over production and sale.

  Because the cheese is widely imitated, it became an increasingly regulated product. In 1955 the name became a certified name, which is not the same thing as a brand name. In 2008 an EU court decided that, in Europe, the name Parmesan refers only to Parmigiano Reggiano. It cannot be used for imitations. Legally, the name now means only the protected cheese from a limited area of northern Italy.

  The English word parmesan comes from French parmesan, earlier spelled parmisan, which was borrowed from Italian parmigiano. French records first use it as a name for the cheese in 1414. In US English, many people pronounce it with a French-style zh sound that French itself does not use in this word. That sound stands in for the Italian j sound. English has used the word since 1519, so the cheese's reputation was traveling long before any law protected it.

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• 5. Centuries of Praise

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  The earliest written record of this cheese comes from the year 1254. According to legend, it was first made during the Middle Ages in the comune of Bibbiano, in the province of Reggio Emilia. Production soon spread to the Parma and Modena areas. Documents from the 13th and 14th centuries describe a cheese already very similar to today's, which suggests its origins reach back much further.

  In 1348, Boccaccio dreamed up a "mountain, all of grated Parmesan cheese" in the Decameron. Its inhabitants do nothing but make macaroni and ravioli, boil them in capon's broth, and throw them down to be scrambled for. Nearby flows a rivulet of Vernaccia, the best ever drunk, with never a drop of water in it.

  During the Great Fire of London of 1666, Samuel Pepys buried his "Parmazan cheese, as well as his wine and some other things" to save them. A century or so later, in the mid-18th century, Giacomo Casanova complained in his memoirs about the name. He called Parmesan a misnomer common throughout an "ungrateful" Europe, because the cheese came from the comune of Lodi, in Lombardy, not from Parma.

  Alberto Grandi and others have claimed that early Parmesan was softer and fattier, with a black rind resembling the Wisconsin version. Records say otherwise. It is well documented that the cheese has been dry, hard, and grainy since the 15th century.

  Industrialization and standardization in the 19th and 20th centuries reduced the variety in its sensory qualities. Hardness, sharpness, aroma, saltiness, and savoriness have all endured. Those traits have a chemical explanation, and it starts with glutamate.

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• 6. Flavor and Kitchen

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  As much as 1.2 grams of glutamate can sit in every 100 grams of Parmigiano Reggiano. That high concentration explains the cheese's strong umami taste. It also carries many aroma-active compounds, including various aldehydes and butyrates. Butyric acid and isovaleric acid together are sometimes used to imitate its dominant aromas.

  In the kitchen, the cheese is commonly grated over pasta and stirred into soups and risottos. It is also eaten on its own. Cooks shave or grate it over other dishes, such as salads.

  The hardest parts of the crust are not wasted. Slivers and chunks are sometimes simmered in soups, broths, and sauces to add flavor. A piece with no wax on it can be broiled and eaten as a snack. Rind can also be infused in olive oil, or placed in a steamer basket while vegetables steam.

  The worth of the cheese has not escaped criminals, who have been hijacking it on Italy's motorways.

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• 7. Theft and Earthquakes

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  Along the Autostrada A1 in northern Italy, between Milan and Bologna, organized crime has ambushed delivery trucks. The Mafia and the Camorra are the groups named, and they hijack whole shipments. The cheese is ultimately sold in southern Italy. Between November 2013 and January 2015, a single organized crime gang stole 2,039 wheels from warehouses in northern and central Italy.

  Some banks, such as Credito Emiliano, accept Parmesan cheese as collateral for a loan. A wheel in an aging room is, in effect, stored value.

  In May 2012, two earthquakes hit the area where the cheese originates. The devastation was profound. Tens of thousands of residents were displaced, factories collapsed, and historical churches, bell towers, and other landmarks were damaged. Years of cheese production were lost, worth about $50 million.

  The chef Massimo Bottura, a native of Modena, responded by creating a recipe called riso cacio e pepe. He invited the world to cook the dish along with him, and that launched Parmigiano Reggiano Day. The Consortium designates the 27th of October for the day. The 27th of October remains the Consortium's day for the cheese.

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• 8. Parmesan Abroad

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  In 2021, the Italian farmer-rancher association Coldiretti reported that 90 percent of the "Italian sounding" cheese sold in the United States was produced domestically. That covered cheese sold as parmesan, mozzarella, grana, and gorgonzola. Outside the European Union and Lisbon Agreement countries, the word Parmesan can legally describe a locally made analog. Only the full Italian name unambiguously means the protected cheese.

  In many areas outside Europe the name has become generic. These cheeses, chiefly from the United States and Argentina, carry names meant to evoke the original, such as Parmigiana, Parmesana, Parmabon, Real Parma, Parmezan, and Parmezano. They are generally pale yellow and usually grated onto dishes such as American pizza and Caesar salad. Some American generic Parmesan is sold already grated and has been aged for less than 12 months.

  The United States Code of Federal Regulations contains a Standard of Identity for "Parmesan and Reggiano cheese." It requires cow's milk and curing for 10 months or more. The cheese may hold no more than 32 percent water and must have at least 32 percent milkfat in its solids. Canadian regulation sets similar moisture and fat levels but places no restriction on aging time. Kraft Foods, a major North American producer of grated Parmesan, has been selling it since 1945. Some non-European producers have taken strong exception to European Union attempts to control the name globally.

  For grated cheese, American law allows up to 4 percent cellulose as an anticaking agent. Many manufacturers have been investigated for allegedly exceeding that limit. In one case, FDA findings stated that "no Parmesan cheese was used to manufacture" a Pennsylvania manufacturer's grated product labeled Parmesan. It was apparently made from other cheeses and cellulose. The manufacturer pleaded guilty and received three years' probation, a $5,000 fine, and 200 hours of community service.

  Parmesan is the best-known grana-type cheese, but it has relatives. Grana Padano comes mainly from Lombardy, and Padano refers to the Po Valley. Its cows may eat silage as well as grass, and its milk may have slightly less fat. Milk from several different days may be combined, and aging need last only nine months. Historic Granone Lodigiano belongs to the same family.

  Reggianito, made in Argentina, was developed by Italian-Argentine cheesemakers. It comes in smaller wheels and ages for less time, but is otherwise broadly similar to the Italian original.

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