Parmesan cheese
Parmesan cheese is considered the prince of Italian cheeses. In Italian it's called parmigiano reggiano and it can only be produced in a defined region.
The European Court of Justice published recently (Feb.2008) a very clear ruling: only cheeses bearing the protected denomination of origin (PDO) ’Parmigiano-Reggiano’ can be sold under the denomination ’Parmesan’.
A lot of similar cheeses produced all over the world used to be named as parmesan, but now it's officially out of law.
The parmigiano-regggiano is produced within an area that covers 5 Italian provinces: Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna and Mantova.
Originally it used to be done with milk from a cow breed named Reggiana Rossa. Around '900, another breed was introduced (Frisone) and nowadays most of the milk used come from this breed, that has a higher productiveness. The Reggiana Rosa breed was used also because of its power in the farm work, but lately, with the farm machines, it was not needed anymore. Its milk is superior and nowadays, some few producers still use them to produce a high quality cheese.
16 liters of milk are needed to produce 1kg of Parmigiano Reggiano, the "real" parmesan cheese.
There's another Italian gourmet specialty that "looks like" Parmigiano Reggiano, it's the Grana Padano cheese.
I admit that when I arrived in Italy I could not notice differences. Lately I would know that it's the same for a lot of people...including Italians! To the world...they are all typical parmesan cheeses! Grana Padano is produced in another zone, in northwest Italy. It also has a protected denomination of origin, and in a scale, it is a little bit under Parmigiano Reggiano.
Regarding the aging, Parmigiano Reggiano needs a minimum of 12 to a top 30 months or more to be ready, while Grana Padano needs a minimum of 9 months.
Preservatives are forbidden in Parmigiano Reggiano and are allowed in Grana Padano, as it uses silos and could be contaminated.
The Parmigiano Reggiano consortium regulations specify that cattle must be fed on fresh feed and hay only. The Grano Padano consortium also allows the use of silo-stored products, i.e. grass that is harvested and kept in dedicated silos.
These are major differences between these two Italian princes of the table! They are both excellent cheeses and as Parmigiano tends to cost more than Grana (it will depend on brands too - you may find a great Grana Padano that may cost more than a regular Parmigiano Reggiano).
Needless to say that they are both very important in human diet. I remember when visiting my family in Brazil, while my children were babies, to see my mom starred while I added Parmigiano reggiano to my son's meal. They are both very rich in calcium, easy to digest and are part of a healthy Italian food menu.
