How to Make Parmesan Cheese (Italian Hard Cheese) at Home

Well, good morning, curd nerds. Today we are going to

make

parmesan

. Well, Parmesan or better known as Parmigiano-Reggiano is from the Lombardi area of ​​Italy and is a very well-known

cheese

, very well-known in every way, with all the w- (stutter) all over it. the world for its spicy flavor. And it's just amazing when shaved and shaved. It is a common ingredient in many pasta dishes sprinkled on top or in other dishes as well. Essential ingredient also in basil pesto. A delicious

cheese

, so let's see how we

make

it, okay? I initially had a problem trying to get 2% fat milk, so what I had to do was use a blend of milks, so this is a 1.3 percent fat milk, it's a light milk, so I used 10 liters of that and I also used 4 liters of whole milk, which is about 3.3 percent.

So they gave me a total of 14 liters of milk, which is 14 quarts with 2% fat. I used 3/8 teaspoon thermophilic culture, 1/8 teaspoon lipase, 3/4 teaspoon calcium chloride, 3/4 teaspoon liquid rennet, and I was using Cu 200 iron rennet, and Brine solution saturated at 18%. So once the pot is full, we will heat it now and the target temperature is 33 degrees Celsius or 91.4 Fahrenheit. So I make sure it heats evenly throughout before moving on to the next step. So I'm going to add the thermophilic culture. I used 3/8 teaspoon, so I'm using 1/8 teaspoon there. Simply sprinkle it over 2% milk. Now, Parmesan is very special because it uses a lower fat percentage of milk to get the flavor you're looking for, after a very long period of time to mature.

Now we simply let this starter culture sit on top for about five minutes, allowing it to rehydrate. Open the lid so no dust or hair gets into the cheese, and then five minutes later, give it a good stir, up and down, just making sure there's nothing left in there. Mix well until the end so that the starter culture can begin to convert the lactose in the milk into lactic acid. Replace the lid and we will mature the milk for 45 minutes. Then, 45 minutes later you can start adding one of the essential ingredients to give the

parmesan

a spicy flavor.

I checked the temperature first. Yes, we are close enough to 33 degrees Celsius, which was 91.4 Fahrenheit. Be sure to check your temperature regularly. Now let's add the lipase. Lipase is a pregastric enzyme that creates the spicy flavor of Parmesan if you are not using raw milk. Now since I'm using pasteurized and homogenized, I had to add lipase to this recipe. Well, I gave it a good stir. Now we are going to cover it again and let it ripen again for 15 minutes. Okay, 15 minutes later, now we'll add the rest of the ingredients. Before I do that, I'll give it a quick stir.

There we go, so make sure the milk is moving and then we'll add the diluted calcium chloride. It was diluted with a quarter cup of dechlorinated water. The reason we use dechlorinated water is because it inhibits the action of the rennet when we add the rennet in the next step. So just dechlorinated water, which can be filtered water or pure water, just make sure it's chlorine-free. We are adding the rennet now. That's also diluted rennet. And we stir it for no more than a minute. The reason we don't stir it too much is because the rennet is starting to work at this point.

I don't want to break the protein structure of the milk. Now one extra step: You can see the milk is moving a little too fast here, so I'm going to slow it down and try to stop it before I put the lid on and let it set. There we go, I've stopped most of the movement. This also helps the rennet to set much better. Well, then we cover and we are going to arrange the milk so that it coagulates now in its curd and whey components, for 45 minutes. So 45 minutes later we'll check for a clean break.

We can do that with our pinky. Now, take a look at the break there. It's a little sloppy. It's not as defined as it should be, it didn't have a clear line down the middle. So what we're going to do there is let it coagulate a little bit more for another 10 minutes. I usually do this if I find the break to be a little sloppy. Well, ten minutes later. We will check it again. Now that's splitting up really well, just a little bit shouldn't be there, but that's a lot better than what it did the first time.

So what we are going to do now is cut the curd. Now, Parmesan is a funny beast; To begin with, the size of the curd should be very small. So let's cut it into lentil-sized pieces. Now I've found that the best way to do it is to use a balloon whisk and just lift it up and down, as you can see there. And to start, we basically cut the curd quite small. So you have to turn it a lot to make sure it is cut correctly and that there are no big pieces. You don't want uneven pieces of curd for this recipe because they will hold up longer than the smaller pieces and that will affect the final texture of your parmesan.

Now I left the whole process for this video because I think it's very important that you see that I'm actually cutting up larger pieces of curd as they come to the surface as I start to stir it. There is no curing time for the curd, the amount of time we had to mature and set certainly allowed that curd to have a very firm structure, as well as the addition of the calcium chloride which adds soluble calcium that the rennet can act upon. So we're going to heat this up now and start stirring for quite a while.

First we are checking the temperature. There are some problems with my thermapen. Anyway here we go. She is turned on. So during maturation and rennet it has cooled 2 degrees. Which is fine, no problem. Anyway we have to heat it now so that the curd shrinks even more. So I'll start stirring and over the course of an hour we'll slowly heat it up to 51 Celsius, which is 124 Fahrenheit. That's over a period of one hour and you have to stir continuously. You have big muscles after this one. So sit back, put on some music and enjoy the buzz or, um, have a glass of wine if you so desire.

It certainly helps with the stirring process. Well, this is at minute 31, you can see that a lot more whey has been expelled and the curd is a lot smaller. You should see that in a second, here we go. So they were reduced considerably from the lentil-sized chunks they originally were. Then, an hour later, we're at almost 51. That was close enough as far as I'm concerned. I really didn't want to go over temperature. And you will see that the size of the curd is now about the size of a grain of rice. It has been reduced considerably.

Now we'll do a quick test to make sure it's ready to press. So gather a handful of curds if they form a ball, and then you can separate them with your thumb and they are ready to press. A great little test before you start pressing. Okay, that's all the stirring, all the warming up we need to do, the heat is now off. And we're going to put the lid back on. I'm going to allow the curd... okay, final temperature check, okay, close enough to 51 for my taste. Ok, now we are going to allow the curd to sink to the bottom and settle for 5 minutes.

So take your big pot to the sink area and we'll drain it through a cheesecloth-lined basket. Now the basket I'm using is the largest one I have, measuring 165 millimeters wide, which is 6.5 inches. . So pour that in. So that serves two purposes: it warms the basket, just warms it a little so the cold curds don't hit it. I also sprayed the cheesecloth with a thin layer of white vinegar. Now this helps prevent the parmesan from sticking to the cheesecloth because it's very hot at this stage, still, you know, 51 degrees Celsius, which is pretty high. It has a tendency to stick to cheesecloth when you press on it, so a little vinegar or white vinegar helps it come off cleanly.

You just adjust the pH level and it's not sticky, so here's a tip. Well. So now I'm just pressing that down, so everything fills the mold evenly, and then I'll fold the cheesecloth over the top of the basket. Just squeezing some whey in there. And then we're going to finish off with the follower. Never place the follower directly on the cheese because it may also stick to the follower. This gives you a nice, even surface. Look, I'm pulling the cheesecloth out a little to make sure there are no creases. Now we put it in the cheese press and press it at medium pressure, initially so that it has the shape we are looking for.

So when pressing, make sure the serum comes out clear and not cloudy. So the initial pressing is 11 kilograms or 24 pounds for 30 minutes. Just in that whey: if it's cloudy when it comes out, then you're pushing it too

hard

, because it's releasing too much of the protein you need in the cheese for the flavor to develop. So make sure it's pretty clear when you press it. Then, 30 minutes later. Let's get it out of the press now. Lifting the follower and releasing it from the mold now, very gently. Let's remove the cheesecloth. It's still quite hot in the mold, so I'm releasing it carefully.

It stuck just a little bit there, you can see the cheese, a little bit of the surface of the cheese came off, so all good, the rest came out fine. That little splash of vinegar helped. So we're just carefully removing the bottom, no tears, which is really nice. So let's turn that around now. And just repair it and hold it down to 22 kilograms or 50 pounds for 12 hours. This is to help consolidate the curds, ensure that they are evenly pressed throughout, and that there are no mechanical holes in the cheese when it is finished. So I'm using a 50 pound spring, so when it's all closed I know I have the right weight or the right pressure weight.

Now, since I'm using a spring, I had to check it and close it again when the cheese started to come together; all the curds started to come together. Well, the next day for me. Now we're going to brine the cheese, so I'm using an 18% saturated brine. Let's take the cheese out of the cheesecloth and press it (laughs). Sorry, we removed the cheese from the press and cheesecloth. So you don't have to be as careful as before. You will see that the fabric does not stick as much, in fact, in this case, it did not stick at all.

And it is a very heavy cheese, it is very compact, so. There were no ridges or anything like that, so I felt pretty good. So we'll put it in the brine for 18 hours and turn it halfway through at 9 hours. Now my brine bucket was pretty full. You don't need to put brine in one of these containers, you can use a stainless steel pot and put it in there, just make sure that if it keeps floating to the top, just sprinkle a surface of cheese salt over the top. of the cheese, which is floating and then when you turn it over, it does the same thing again.

Okay, so it sits there in the brine and I put it back in the cheese cave so it was at 13 degrees Celsius. Well, once it's done brining, you take it out of the brine vat and put it in, just a drainage mat and a board, and that will air dry at room temperature for 2 or 3 days or until it's dry touch. Now mine took two days to air dry. Until I was happy, it air dried. There we got a very nice looking cheese, very compact, as all good Parmesan should be. So to keep the beasts away, I have this lovely little umbrella that I place over the top so nothing can get to my cheese.

I certainly don't want a kazoo marzu. Alright, once it's dry to the touch, I'm basically going to let it mature for 6 to 12 months at 10 to 12 degrees Celsius. And we're going to change that weekly now. That's right, 82... Sorry, between 85 and 90 percent relative humidity. So in the first week rotate daily. As you can see, the process is quite simple. It's the agitation for an hour that catches your arm, I'll tell you what. Now I have some muscles. But we're going to put this in a maturing box and mature it for 6 to 12 months. The cheese is small, probably six months old, the flavor will be there.

I have matured parmesan for up to 18 months and, although it has turned out incredible, a little dry. We'll try to ripen it naturally, so it has a natural rind for at least the first 3 months, keeping it nice and clean, and then you may have to vacuum seal it to maintain moisture, it's a pretty small cheese unlike parmesan. That is made in Italy and weighs between 60 and 70 kilograms, which is very heavy. We are going to keep it at a temperature of between 10 and 12 degrees Celsius. And we will do it with between 85 and 90 percent humidity in the ripening box during those 3 months.

After that, vacuum packaging no matter what the humidity of your cheese refrigerator will be. If necessary, you can wax it, however, I find that when you wax cheeses for a long time they tend to develop mold underneath, so I will prefer to vacuum seal it once it hasa natural crust. Anyway, don't forget that you can buy the kit for this, we have an Italian cheese kit and you can buy it in our store. Also, don't forget to subscribe to the channel to see new and interesting content about cheeses and you can also support us through Patreon.

Thanks for watching Curd Nerds and I'll see you next time.