The milk arrives at the casello from the local farms in a constant flow, two successive milkings going into the production of each bath of cheese. The evening's milk is poured into small trays to rest throughout the night, and the mornings milk is used after it has rested for about one hour. After some of the cream has been skimmed off, the morning and evening milks are poured into a copper kettle and the starter of fermented whey (a residue of the preceding batch) is added. This raises the acidity of the milk and starts the fermentation process.
For the fermentation process the milk is heated to 33oC, while stirring slowly. The heat is then removed and the rennet (from the stomach of calves) is added to the milk. Coagulation takes about 12 to 15 minutes, after which the cagliata (curd) is broken up using a tool called a spino, reducing the curd to the size of a piece of grain. The temperature of the curd is then slowly raised to 45oC, and then more quickly to 55oC.
After the heat has been turned off, the cheese settles towards the bottom of the kettle where it forms a solid mass. The cheese is removed and collected in a hempen sieve-cloth which is placed inside a wooden mould or fascera and lightly pressed down to remove the remaining whey. After a couple of hours a special matrix is inserted between the cheese and the mould, imprinting the words 'Parmigiano-Reggiano' in pin-dot writing all over the wall of the cheese; so that it can be recognised as authentic, along with the dairy code, and the month and year of production. (If the writing on the rind is covered with oblique lines it means that the cheese has not reached a sufficiently high standard to be recognised as Parmigiano-Reggiano.
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