Emilia Romagna

•Reggio nell’Emilia

TERROIR:

Reggio nell’Emilia is a little city placed in the heart of the Region of Emila Romagna.The production of the Red Cows Parmigiano-Reggiano is regulated by the strict guideline of the Safeguarding Consortium for the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, registered at the EuropeanCommunity. Parmigiano-Reggiano is a Protected Designation of Origin cheese (DOP), that means that this product has an unavoidable link with the place of origin.Red Cows are characterized by the red wheat colour coat with dark or pale changings, toned down in the inside parts and in the lower limbs, at the eyes edges, around the face and the tail. Its good milk and the strong production regulation which provides only grass, the prohibition to use any method to force the production, the use of certified no GMO cereals, together with the ability and the experience of the cheese-maker who works in the traditional way, give to this Parmigiano-Reggiano a strong flavour, a straw-yellow colour and unique characteristics.

PARMIGIANO REGGIANO (RED COWS)EMILIA ROMAGNA - Reggio nell’Emilia

FEATURES:

Parmigiano-Reggiano is one of the most ancient and rich cheese ever known.It is produced nowadays substantially as eight centuries ago: same ingredients, same production process, same handcrafted care.Parmigiano-Reggiano is a cheese totally natural, known in the world as “King of cheeses” for its particular productive, nutritional and organoleptic characteristics.

The milk of Red Cows has some qualitative characteristics that differ from the traditionalParmigiano-Reggiano.The Red Cow produces a third less of milk than the Holstein breed, but it has a higher perfomancein the cheese-making process, that guarantees a better aptitude for the cheese to a long ageing,with a consequent better digestibility.For that reason the production regulations of Red Cows Parmigiano-Reggiano provide that theproduct can be sold only after at least 24 months of ageing, compared to the 12 months of thetraditional Parmigiano-Reggiano.The result is a cheese that, despite the long ageing, has a sweet, delicate and persistent taste;better digestibility, the presence of calcium, phosphorus, proteins, essential amino-acids, the lack of sugar-milk are indicated also for the intolerant people.

PROCESSING:

The milk of the Red Cows is placed in large vats, where it develops the milk ferments and the fat, rises spontaneously to the surface, bringing up the impurities.It is the phase of the surfacing.After 12 hours the fat in excess is separated and used for the production of the butter.When it is the moment to fill the cauldron, the cheese maker pours the skimmed milk of theevening, taken from the vats, with the whole milk of the milking just arrived.The milk, conveniently filtered, fill the typical bell-shaped copper cauldrons, that can contain about eleven quintals, enough for the production of two wheels.To get only one kilo of matured Red Cows cheese are necessary about 14 litres of milk.In the cavity of the copper cauldrons steam flows: from the beginning the temperature rises to 20° Cto prepare the mix of milks to receive the ferments.It is added the right dose of bacteria.On the fourth day the wheel is ready to enter into big vats full of a water and salt-satured solution,where it rests for about 20 days, to absorb salt in order to have the right taste and a betterconservation.

CURIOSITY:

The Reggiana breed is an autocthonous breed of Northern Italy, brought by the Barbaric population in the fourth century A.D.From the milk of the Red Cows the Benedictine monks started to produce Parmigiano-Reggiano 8 centuries ago.The breed was presented during the Expo in Vienna in 1873.The genealogical registrations started in 1950 and the breedstandards were published in 1953.The breeders association was officially recognised in 1962.

The Red Cows can be called “Mothers” of Parmigiano-Reggiano.During the last century this breed, less productive but more rustic and long-lived, has been gradually substituted by more profitable breeds.

FARM:

Consorzio Vacche Rosse:at the beginning of the nineties, a group of breeders took into account the idea to start again the production of ParmigianoReggiano with the milk of the ancient Reggiana’s breed.Just as they did in the past.In 1991, to manage this program and to organize efficiently the activity to value the product, the breeders group decided tocreate the Consorzio di Valorizzazione dei Prodotti dell’Antica Razza Reggiana (C.V.P.A.R.R. – Consortium to value the products of the ancient Reggiana’s breed), nowadays known as “Red Cows Consortium”.