A question you may ask yourself about my blog is, why are there music videos in all the posts? Well let me tell you. My plan is to include my song I am listening to/is my favorite/is my new jam when I published each post that way when I look back I can create a playlist that can bring me back to that moment. I am a huge fan of music, and while my list of favorites is diverse (Techno, folk, rave, pop, techno, rock, techno, alternative) I am going to try and make a well rounded playlist that can really bring this year together nicely.
So this weekend I went on a very interesting trip. I got to see three of Italy most famous foods, and how they are created: Parmigiana cheese, Balsamic de Modena and Prosciutto de Parma. If I do say so myself it was quiet a gastronomical adventure. The first stop we did was in Parma to a small cheese factory and I got to see exactly what goes into making Parmigiano cheese, which is surprisingly not alot: milk, whey, salt. It was really cool. Basically all true Parmigiano factories are open all year long with no days off because the cows never stop needing to be milked. The cows are milked each morning and the beginnings of the cheese is made by the afternoon.
An actually wheel of Parmigiano cheese has very strict requirements as to what can qualify it as an official wheel of Parmigiano cheese. Starting from the smallest, the feed that the cows are fed has to come from the farmers, so no more than 20% of what the cows eat can come from somewhere other than Parma. This is because what a cow eats affects its dairy production and how it tastes. The milk used for the cheese must come from cows that are raised in Parma so no milk can be imported from anywhere else, even from a nearby town. Then then milk has to be processed in Parma, after the cheese has been created it goes through several vetting processes. First, it has to be aged for 12 months then EACH wheel (not a sample or a test batch) EACH WHEEL is tested by the cheese consortium. There are a couple levels of quality. If the cheese is found to be perfect they fire brand the outside noting what farm it came from, that is an official Parma cheese and then it is sold as such. The next level down is that it is a good wheel of cheese with no defects but it is not perfect, this type of cheese is also fire branded but the crust of the whole wheel is scored, this is called by Italian's Ribbed Cheese. Then there is substandard cheese. This cheese is not fire branded but instead the rind is cut off (to remove the stamp of the farm which is made in the cheese making process) and that cheese is sold as generic cheese. The last is defected, that is to say something went terribly awry and it is moldy or something like that and of course those are thrown away.
Now these cheese are made by a master cheese maker. The one I met was one of the best of the region, and she was very nice. These cheese makers don't go to school for cheese making but instead are trained by another Master cheese maker, think master/apprentice until they are deemed good enough to trek out on their own. These cheese makers must follow the requirements to make the cheese, but it is up to them to figure out how much whey to add, how much cream to remove, when to take the cheese out etc. They base these decisions off of years of experience working with cheese and knowing that climate and conditions can change their whole product.
Then I moved onto a prosciutto manufacturing building. This was far less interesting to me, what I did find interesting was that one leg of prosciutto is worth anywhere from €250-300. In this one building there was over a million dollars worth of ham. Crazy.
Next I moved on to Modena. This is where balsamic is famous for being made. Now the majority of grocery store balsamic is made in the span of a few days. They add caramel coloring, preservatives and make it similarly to how they make it in Modena but their similarly is very loosely defined. This is why the label says balsamic de Modena and doesn't have the official seal of the balsamic consortium. To qualify as authentic balsamic it must be aged 12 - 24 years, with grapes grown in Modena and the soil must be certified to be without certain pesticides. When I looked at the room you can see lines of various sized barrels in a line. Each barrel is made from different woods, maple, apple, olive etc. Each wood flavors the vinegar slightly different. Those caskets are the original caskets from before the year 1800, they use these to retain the good bacteria, flavors and stay true to how vinegar was originally produced. What they do is place the vinegar in the largest casket (just like they used to do it), every year through evaporation around 10% of the liquid disappears each year they take 10% out of the second smallest barrel and place that in the smallest barrel, 20% out of the 3rd barrel into the 2nd barrel, 30% out of the 4th barrel into the 3rd so on and so on. Until the last barrel is empty and ready to be reloaded with new squished grapes. If a barrel breaks or gets a hole in it from the acid erosion a new barrel is created around the old barrel to preserve the original wood.
After 12 or 24 years the vinegar is taken to the consortium to be tested for its quality. This consortium owns the official bottles as authentic balsamic must be put into a specific bottle, any manufacturer of this vinegar sends it in and then labels the bottles with their family name to distinguish themselves.
I then got to sample, 12 year, a 24 year and an 80 year old balsamic, a white, apple and orange balsamic as well... It was beyond my wildest dreams. The 80 year old balsamic costing an upwards of €200. #thatsoneexpensivesalad
I just ate cheese in Parma and 80 year old vinegar in Moderna, and saw how prosciutto is made (no not what they do to the piggies, but how they cure the meat). I would vote that a pretty successful weekend.
Then I moved onto a prosciutto manufacturing building. This was far less interesting to me, what I did find interesting was that one leg of prosciutto is worth anywhere from €250-300. In this one building there was over a million dollars worth of ham. Crazy.
Next I moved on to Modena. This is where balsamic is famous for being made. Now the majority of grocery store balsamic is made in the span of a few days. They add caramel coloring, preservatives and make it similarly to how they make it in Modena but their similarly is very loosely defined. This is why the label says balsamic de Modena and doesn't have the official seal of the balsamic consortium. To qualify as authentic balsamic it must be aged 12 - 24 years, with grapes grown in Modena and the soil must be certified to be without certain pesticides. When I looked at the room you can see lines of various sized barrels in a line. Each barrel is made from different woods, maple, apple, olive etc. Each wood flavors the vinegar slightly different. Those caskets are the original caskets from before the year 1800, they use these to retain the good bacteria, flavors and stay true to how vinegar was originally produced. What they do is place the vinegar in the largest casket (just like they used to do it), every year through evaporation around 10% of the liquid disappears each year they take 10% out of the second smallest barrel and place that in the smallest barrel, 20% out of the 3rd barrel into the 2nd barrel, 30% out of the 4th barrel into the 3rd so on and so on. Until the last barrel is empty and ready to be reloaded with new squished grapes. If a barrel breaks or gets a hole in it from the acid erosion a new barrel is created around the old barrel to preserve the original wood.
After 12 or 24 years the vinegar is taken to the consortium to be tested for its quality. This consortium owns the official bottles as authentic balsamic must be put into a specific bottle, any manufacturer of this vinegar sends it in and then labels the bottles with their family name to distinguish themselves.
I then got to sample, 12 year, a 24 year and an 80 year old balsamic, a white, apple and orange balsamic as well... It was beyond my wildest dreams. The 80 year old balsamic costing an upwards of €200. #thatsoneexpensivesalad
I just ate cheese in Parma and 80 year old vinegar in Moderna, and saw how prosciutto is made (no not what they do to the piggies, but how they cure the meat). I would vote that a pretty successful weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment