A Foodie’s Paradise- Cheese, Prosciutto and Balsamic!

So today I spent my day touring some yummy factories! After our 5:30am early start, we started our day at the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese factory! Can you say DELISCIOUS!!!! It was totally cool, we literally saw it from start to finish. The pictures below are in order of the production process!
First a certain ratio of milk is heated in these huge vats.
Eventually, retin is added which is what makes the cheese start to curdle and start to form what we know as parmigiano-reggiano!


After the cooking process, the cheese go into mold in which they get their classic rind stamp.
Then after a salt bath for 20 days….



TaDa!!!!! CHEESE!!!!!!
Tons of cheese!!



Next trip was to the Prosciutto factory! Now sadly this wasn’t quite as cool, as one would hope! Pretty much the legs are covered in salt, sit for awhile, washed, recovered with salt, sit for awhile then they are cleaned and aged for about 4 months… that’s it! Woohoo



Then the master of all Italian products in my opinion.. Balsamic Vinegar! This was very fascinating. An overall view is this.

Balsamic vinegar is white and red grapes mashed together, then cooked for 2 days then put into barrels to ferment for at least 12 years! *Side note: just because a bottle says Modena on it does not mean it was actually produced in Modena. Unless it say traditional and comes in a tiny bottle or a huge price then it’s not the legit thing! Still yummy just not legit! Ha!

These little barrels are holding vinegar that is over 100 years old!! So cool!

After learning we got to do some tasting, and let me tell you it was scrumptious! We tried orange and apple vinegars, then a 6 year aged, and the traditional 15 and 25 year aged vinegars! My favorite was the apple and the 6 year. The apple is yummy on fruit or fresh cheese and the 6 year is a general use balsamic. It will go on everything from cheese, fruit, risotto, and steak!


Best day ever!! :) Don’t worry I wont eat it all, I’ll bring some home to share!