Parma (November 18)

Wow!  It's been nearly two months since my last post!  Time flies when you're having fun, if you call the end of any semester with tests/quizzes/projects to grade (followed by comment writing on each of your students, followed by comments on each of your advisees) fun (lol)!  Throw in a quick jaunt back to the States for the holidays and, violà, here I am!  Here's my attempt to get caught up.  Enjoy!

November 18 – Parma

On this day we ventured out by bus (see right) on the second of four scheduled extended school trips.  The first was our orientation trip to the province of Latina, about 2 hours south of Viterbo, in September.  This trip would take us 6 hours north of Viterbo, over the Apennine Mountains (see below left), to the cities of Ravenna, Padova, and Venezia.

But first, we make an intermediate stop to a small town called Parma, which is appropriately named since its where the truly authentic parmesan cheese is produced.  The locals will tell you the “parmesan” cheese we get in the green Kraft plastic container isn’t the real thing.  In fact, if it’s not spelled “parmeggiano” it’s not really “it”.  Okay.  Fair enough!

In Parma we toured a museum/factory where parmeggiano is made.  While our tour guide, Valentina (left) was a very nice, well-versed, lady of the cheese, her delivery was a bit dry and difficult to understand at times (even for the Italian teachers!).  However through the video she shows us and some info I lifted from the internet, the process in which the cheese is produced is pretty interesting.

Parmigiano-Reggiano is made from raw cow’s milk. The whole milk of the morning milking is mixed with the naturally skimmed milk (which is made by holding milk in large shallow tanks to allow the cream to separate) of the previous evening's milking, resulting in a part skim mixture. The milk is pumped into copper-lined vats (see left)

The temperature is then raised to 55 degrees C (131 degrees F) with careful control by the cheese-maker.  The curd is left to settle for 45-60 minutes.  The compacted curd is collected in a piece of loosely woven cotton fabric before being divided in two and placed in molds or "wheels".  There is 1100 liters (291 gallons) of milk per vat, producing two cheeses each (above right).  The curd making up each wheel weighs around 45 kg (100 lbs).  The remaining whey in the vat is used to feed pigs from which "prosciutto di Parma" is produced.  Those Italians don't waste anything!

The best part, of course, as it was at the olive oil factory, was the tasting of the parmeggiano at the end (pic 4).  The cheese was, as you can imagine, was amazing!!