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Parmesan Cheese

As the name indicates, this cheese is a native manufacture of Parma in northern Italy. It possesses such a sweet taste that it is everywhere employed by cooks for culinary purposes, especially when grated. The milk from which this cheese is made is drawn from cows which are kept in sheds the year around and fed in summer on cut grass and in winter on fine hay. The cream skimmed from the milk is used for butter, or the making of cream cheese, so that Parmesan is not of a very buttery character, and the rennet is added to the skimmed milk at a temperature of from eighty-six to eighty-nine degrees Fahrenheit, and the whole is then placed over a slow fire and the temperature raised to about one hundred and twenty degrees, the curd separating meanwhile into small lumps. Saffron is occasionally added to the milk before heating, which gives it a yellowish green hue, and the curd is then put under pressure. These cheeses are of mammoth size, shaped in large flat hoops, the edges are then rounded, the weight being in the neighborhood of one hundred and eighty pounds. They are of a dark, almost black color on the outside, which is brought about by dressing with coloring and rubbing with linseed oil until a good surface is procured. Parmesan cheese takes about three years to ripen, and as its size requires a considerable time in its consumption, it is advisable to cover the cut-surfaces with paper steeped in sweet oil.