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Parmigiano-Reggiano is the result of a real concentrate of nourishing substances.
16 litres of fine milk from the typical area are in fact necessary to produce one kilo of cheese. Parmigiano-Reggiano is exceptional for its content of vitamins and proteins, and for its richness in calcium and phosphorus.
An extraordinary nourishing power is concentrated in the Parmigiano-Reggiano paste, in wich it matures during the long period of natural ageing.
Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese is said to be "new"when it has been produced in the current or just passed year; "mature" when it has reached a period between 12 and 18 months; "old" when it is aged between 18 and 24 months; "ultra old" when it has past at least two summer periods (from 24 up to 36 months).Its paste, rather soft and almost velveteen, rich in a very minute granularity and just perceivably ocellated, is granted by an extraordinary kind of milk, produced by animals fed with the best forage.
The year of production can be revealed by the digits carved either in the mould of the cheese shape, either in the fire brand that is imprinted on the cheese forms wich have the requirement requested by the "Consorzio del Formaggio Parmigiano-Reggiano"; the maturing degree can also be figured out by the degree of sweetness, fragrance and for the consistency of the cheese paste.
We check every single cheese shape through the "threshing", the "broaching" and sometimes through the "dowelling", helped by specific tools: the percussion hammer, the screw needle, the plug or probe. We examine, with tactile, hearing and smell fineness, the eight factors that define the quality of Parmigiano Reggiano: age, maturing degree, fragrance, structure, paste colour, consistency, rind condition and dappling.
The colour of Parmigiano-Reggiano has a spectrum that goes from golden straw to pale straw and is equally spread all through the cheese shape, whereas the "chip" structure, in the case of the mature product, detaches in subtle strips that follow a disposition of converging rays to the centre of the form. Given for granted these typical and constant characteristics, it is possible to distinguish some differences among cheese shapes, as in every handicraft product, where no piece of a series
results to be equal to another.
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