SALT FACTS

No Salt, No Parmesan Cheese

The difference between fresh cheese and aged cheese is salt. Italians call the curds that are eaten fresh before they begin to turn sour, ricotta, and it is made all throughout Italy. But once the salt is added, once cheese makers cure their products in Sole to prevent spoilage and allow for aging, then each cheese is different.
All that’s needed to make cheese is milk and salt. That combination was common in Europe. Just as goats and sheep were domesticated earlier than cattle, it is though that goat’s and sheep’s cheeses are much older ideas than cow’s milk cheese. The habit of carrying liguids in animal skins mat have led to the cause of the first cheese making since milk coming in contact with animal skin will soon curdle.
The Romans made a tremendous variety of cheeses, with difference from region to region. Perhaps the most popular cheese, parmesan, now called Parmigiano-Reggiano, because it is made in the pasturelands between Parma and Reggio, may have had its roots as far back as the 13th century.
Drained curds are left in cheesecloth for a day and divided and put into wooden molds. The Latin word for for mold, forma, is the root of the Italian word for cheese, formaggio. After at least three days the ninety-pound cheeses are floated in a brine (Sole) bath and turned every day. The aging of cheese is a matter of its slow absorption of salt. It takes two years for the salt to reach the center of the wheel of Parmigiano-Riggiano cheese. After that, the cheese begins to dry out. So these cheeses have always had one year of life between when they are sold and when they are considered too hard and dry, even too salty.
Someday we’ll see a forward thinking cheese maker take hold of the idea of using the finest quality salt for his/her art. That’s the day you’ll be able to purchase Original Himalayan Crystal Salt Parmesan cheese.