Day 37: The King Of Cured Meats And The Cheese Queen
I'd been looking forward to this day for a while. Well, for at least a week since I had booked the tour. We decided to do a Parmigiano Reggiano and Culatello tour while we were in Parma to see where the goodness comes from. We also decided to do a private tour because it meant we could ask all the dumb questions we wanted to without having to listen to anyone else's dumb questions.
A little calf who will one day grow up to make crap tonnes of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.
You've got something on your face.
Davide, our tour guide from Parma Golosa, took us to a small cheese producer just outside Parma. The place was called Caseificio Giansanti and they produce just six wheels of the stuff per day (other places make hundreds).
Georgio (one of the region's oldest cheesemakers) makes the cheese 365 days a year.
It comes out from the vats looking like mozzarella. If it were me, I would call it a day at that point and just eat into those huge spheres of soft and warm cheese. Davide told me that it wouldn't taste that good, kind of like squeaky rubber.
After putting them into their molds, they have a weight placed over them to squish them into shape.
This is the warehouse where they keep 2,500 wheels of cheese all varying in ages.
Giorgio showing us how they check to see if the cheese passes the quality test. You bang it with a small hammer and listen to the sound. It's some guy's job to go around to the cheesemakers and tap cheese all day.
When it has been tested and approved, a stamp is seared onto the wheel.
Giorgio's high tech warehouse management.
We then drove to Podere Cadassa – a culatello producer down by the Po River. Culatello is basically the king of cured meats. Far less common than prosciutto, these bad boys can only be made in areas around the Po River and are made using the butt of the pig.
We had to get a photo in here because we may never get another chance to go to such a creepy but amazing place.
They also make salami.
After the tour we had lunch at the restaurant on the property, Al Vedel, where we got to sample the cured meats (just look at it!) as well as some other specialties.
This private tour was AMAZING and so worth the €115 each. If you're in the Emilia-Romagna region and love food, definitely look into Parma Golosa.
Simple ricotta ravioli. I can never get sick of this dish.
After the tour, we drove out to see Adam's aunt in Finale Emilia.
A few of Adam's relatives stopped by. I wish I could speak Italian because it would have been nice to chat to them!
Well that was a looooong day. We drove (in the dark) to our agriturismo outside Modena and immediately crashed.
