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Day 7 -- To Bologna, Parmeggiano Reggiano factory, Acetaia Tradizionale.
On the bus ride to Bologna, we stop at this Parmeggiano Reggiano factory. It is owned by two families: one who runs the farm part, and one that runs the cheese-making part.
It's a food production facility, so we have to wear our little booties.
The whole day's production has just completed in the seven copper vats you see. Each vat holds 1,100 liters of milk, and produces two cheese wheels. Today's production is the thirteen raw cheeses on the table in the middle.
Walking around the production floor.
The next room is the salting and aging area. You see yesterday's production has been put into these metal molds.
The mold is lined with this platic that molds the date and facility number into the rind.
It's hard to tell from this photo, but the wheels are aged for thirty days in a salt water bath. They are soaking in brine, and the metal trays with white are the salt dispensers.
Each wheel will go from around 45 Kg to around 50 Kg in the thirty days (all infused salt). They are then moved into this secondary aging room.
As they age in the room, they go from around 50 Kg to 40 Kg as they evarporate water. Note the color change over that time as well.
Wade using the hammer to test the sound of the cheese.
Down in the sampling room, we get to try cheeses aged 12, 24 and 36 months.
The Italians are very strict. You can get "parmesan" cheese from Wisconsin, but only this small area can produce the DOP-certified Parmeggiano Reggiano.
Our next stop along the road is the Acetaia Tradizionale, where they produce the DOP-certified balsamic vinegar. We start with a quick welcome drink.
This is their family house, and this son leads the presentation.
Here is the spread where we get to try things with both the 12-year and 25-year aged vinegars.
Each of these lines of barrels goes from the largest to the smallest, and each year the vinegar ages and evaporates and concentrates.
There is a second, larger facility on the farm as well.
Hard to believe, but the product just sits in this climate-controlled room, with just these little handkerchiefs over the barrels to allow them to age.
More meats and cheeses, of course, this time to sample with the two ages of the vinegar.
Here are the two bottles; we were impressed and bought a pair of the bottles and shipped it home.
After checking into our hotel, we do a walkabout in Bologna. Here are a couple more musicians.
There was some sort of literacy event going on in the main square.
That night, we ate at the restaurant across from the hotel, actually out on the patio.
We started with this panzanella salad, presented more as a stuffed tomato.
Kimberly got the green lasagne with a parmesan foam.
Wade got the tagliatelle ragu. This will turn out to be a problem as we have this for the next four days.