Parmigiano Reggiano and Balsamic Vinegar.

May 17th, 2018

Ejoerger '20, Sjenkins '20


Today we made an hour and a half trip to visit 4 Madonne Caseificio Dell’Emilia, producers of Parmigiano Reggiano as well as Mirco Casari, maker of balsamic vinegar. We started the day with a tour of the factory where the cheese is made. 

     

Throughout the tour of the cheese factory, we were able to observe the production and packaging of over 33,000 aging wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. At the end of the tour, we were able to watch the cheese master cut one wheel of the cheese using his specific, by hand, technique. 

       

They also mentioned how their factory was affected by the 2012 6.1 magnitude earthquake, and they explained how devastating it was to their factory. Following this, they explained how they restored and improved their stock room to prevent future damage from earthquakes. To end the tour we were able to try the cheese that was cut in fount of us. Several students choose to purchase cheese from the factory at the end of this tour.


Following the tour of the cheese factory, we went to Mirco Casari’s house to observe how balsamic vinegar is made. He explained the process he goes through to make the traditional balsamic vinegar.


We learned that this specific type of balsamic vinegar must be aged for a minimum of 12 years. We saw several barrels that were over 100 years old, one even being from 1900. We also learned that traditional balsamic vinegar must go through all 4 seasons of weather in order to age properly. 



We were to taste two types of traditional balsamic vinegar as well as chocolate filled with balsamic vinegar. We noticed this was much different than what are used to in the U.S.

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