We benefit from the vital support of our experienced staff who work with us in our dairy: a master dairyman and his apprentice, who help us turn our milk into about fifteen wheels of cheese every day. Find out how much work goes into making a single morsel of this precious cheese!

 

THE MILK

The main ingredient is obviously the milk produced on our farm.
The morning’s milking is poured into traditional copper vats together with the milk from the evening before, which has already been skimmed and the cream sent to make butter.
The milk is heated in these large copper vats until it reaches the right temperature.

 

THE CURDS

After adding the rennet (strictly natural and partly derived from the previous day's cheese-making, a bit like the natural yeast in sourdough) we wait for a few minutes and watch as the initial transformation takes place.
The rennet and the temperature work together and change the consistency of the milk, turning it into something that resembles yogurt: the dairyman gently touches the curds to decide when they are ready and then crumbles them into tiny fragments called grains with a special whisk called a "spino".

 

THE CHEESE MOULD

The curds are now cooked so that the grains settle at the bottom.
The dairyman then skilfully collects them and divides them into two parts, compacts them and wrapped in a pure muslin cloth.

The muslin cloth and its precious contents (about 100 kg, giving us two wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano​) is first hung on a crossbar and then put into the "mould" that will give the cheese its final shape. Each wheel is marked with an individual number to identify it from this stage onwards and preserve the chain of traceability.

​The wheel will only be marked with the "Parmigiano-Reggiano" name, the indication of the month and year of manufacture, the number 222 that identifies our dairy and the space reserved for symbol of the Consortium, after it has passed the "hammer" test

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THE SALTING

After the time has passed needed to give Parmigiano Reggiano its well known shape, the fresh cheese undergoes a salting process in special vertical tanks containing ​​a solution of salt and water: the absorption of the salt by the cheese is a totally natural and slow process, taking almost a month and giving it its unique taste.​

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AGING

​We are very proud of our warehouse that can store several thousand cheeses at once at various stages of aging: we make 5500 wheels every year!
The wheels are left to rest on wooden shelves: the young cheese is pale in colour, turning it into its unmistakable beautiful dark beige as it dries and the crust forms.
We have wheels in our warehouse aged for between 12 to 36 months: The most popular Parmigiano Reggiano among our customers has been left to age for 24 and 30 months respectively.
Did you know that the crust of Parmesan cheese is natural and totally edible because it has not undergone any kind of processing?

 

CONTROLS AND MARKING

As it ages, we pamper each of our Parmigiano Reggiano wheels: they are turned and brushed regularly, and are visited at set intervals by the specialists sent by the Consortium who use special hammers to tap them and listen, to the vibrations produced at various points of the wheel, to check there are no air pockets inside.
​This tapping of the wheels with the hammer is called "beating"​ and is an ancient and difficult craft: a skilled expert can "listen" to tens of wheels every hour!

After it has passed our controls and the prescribed tests, every wheel is branded with the logo of the Parmigiano-Reggiano Consortium, proving it is a product that conforms with their strict rules and regulations.
As we mentioned before, only the wheels that have been proven to comply with the regulations are approved and branded; any wheels that do not come up to expectations have all their markings and dotted logo removed, to make sure the quality stays high!