th
# 84 OCTOBER 17 , 2016
# 84 October 17
th
2016
of spun curd cheeses that
has origins dating back to
the Middle Ages. It has a
smooth crust and is made
from whole cow’s milk
with natural acidity from
fermentation.
There are two types of Provolone Valpadana DOP:
“sweet” Provolone Valpadana “dolce”, which has
a delicate flavour due to
the use of calf rennet and
a maturation period of a
minimum of 10 days up
to 2/3 months, and “spicy” Provolone Valpadana,
which has a stronger flavour due to the use of kid
and/or lamb rennet and
which is matured for a period of between 3 months
is compact when cut, with
and 1 year.
a white or straw yellow
It is a wholly original chee- colour. The sweet variety
se that stands out against has small holes and is soft,
other spun curds becau- whereas the spicy alternase of its large size, which tive is slightly flaky.
means it can be matured
longer without drying out To guarantee the authenexcessively, which would ticity of the Provolone Valmake it a cheese for gra- padana DOP, the wheel of
ting. The cheese has a cheese must bear a rosetsmooth, thin crust with a te with a yellow cheese on
golden yellow colour that a green background and
can sometimes be yellowy the number of the dairy
brown and which is given producer.
a sheen by the paraffin
used to cover it. The curd Production
The milk is first heated to
the correct processing
temperature, then a certain amount of natural
whey starter culture taken
from the previous batch is
added. This culture is rich
in selected lactic ferments
with the task of acidifying
the liquid mass and consequently
encouraging
the action of the rennet to
be added later. The curd
is made by curdling the
milk with calf, kid or lamb
rennet individually or in
combination and is then of time ranging from a few
subjected to a spinning hours up to thirty days depending on the weight of
process.
the cheese.
The product that comes The two varieties of Proout of the spinner is al- volone Valpadana DOP
ready shaped and ready are mainly distinguished
to be collected in special by the type of rennet used
steel moulds at a tempe- in the production process
rature of around 60 de- and the duration of the
grees. The cheese obtai- maturing period.
ned from this process is
placed in cold water and The local area
refrigerated so that it can
firm up. The next stage is Provolone Valpadana must
salting in brine, which la- be produced in full within
sts for a variable amount the provinces of Cremona,
Brescia, Verona, Vicenza,
Rovigo, Padua and Piacenza and in part in the provinces of Bergamo, Mantua, Lodi and Trento using
raw ingredients farmed in
the same provinces. The
milk must be transformed
into Provolone Valpadana
within 60 hours of the first
milking. It is currently produced in 11 cheese factories and the Consortium
has authorised the facilities of 38 packaging firms.
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