Grana Padano
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Grana Padano | |
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Country of origin | Italy |
Region, town | Emilia-Romagna: province of Piacenza Lombardy: Trentino: Veneto: In addition to these main centres |
Source of milk | Cows |
Pasteurised | No |
Texture | Hard |
Aging time | 8–20 months |
Certification | Italy: DOC 1955 EU: PDO 1996 |
[[Commons:Category:Lua error in Module:Wikidata at line 446: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). |Related media on Wikimedia Commons]] |
Grana Padano (Italian pronunciation: [ˈɡraːna paˈdaːno]) is a hard, slow-ripened, semi-fat cheese from Italy, comparable to Parmigiano Reggiano or "parmesan" cheese. Grana Padano has had protected designation of origin status since 1996.[citation needed]
Contents
Etymology of name
The name comes from the Italian word grana (‘grain’), which refers to the distinctively grainy texture of the cheese, and the adjective Padano, which refers to the valley Pianura Padana. It is called "Grana Padano" and not "Grana Padana" because the Italian word grana is the masculine noun, il grana, describing this specific cheese, and not the feminine noun la grana, which means "grain".
History
Grana Padano is one of the world's first hard cheeses, created nearly 900 years ago by the Cistercian monks of Chiaravalle Abbey, founded in 1135 near Milan, who used ripened cheese as a way of preserving surplus milk.[citation needed] By the year 1477, it was regarded as one of the most famous cheeses of Italy.[according to whom?] It can last a long time without spoiling, sometimes aging up to two years.[citation needed] It is made in a similar way to the Parmigiano Reggiano of Emilia-Romagna but over a much wider area and with different regulations and controls.[citation needed]
Process of production
Like Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana Padano is a semifat hard cheese which is cooked and ripened slowly for at least 9 months. If it passes quality tests, it is fire-branded with the Grana Padano trademark.[citation needed] The cows are milked twice a day, the milk is left to stand, and then partially skimmed.[citation needed] Milk produced in the evening is skimmed to remove the surface layer of cream and mixed with fresh milk produced in the morning. The partly skimmed milk is transferred into copper kettles and coagulated; the resulting curd is cut to produce granules with the size of rice grains, which gives the cheese its characteristic texture, and then cooked to 53–56 °C (127–133 °F). It is produced year-round and the quality can vary seasonally as well as by year. Though similar to Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, the younger Grana Padano cheeses are less crumbly, milder and less complex in flavor than their more famous, longer-aged relative.[citation needed]
Specifications
A wheel of Grana Padano is cylindrical, with slightly convex or almost straight sides and flat faces. It measures 35 to 45 cm (14 to 18 in) in diameter, and 15 to 18 cm (5.9 to 7.1 in) in height. It weighs 24 to 40 kg (53 to 88 lbs) per wheel. The rind, which is thin, is white or straw yellow.[citation needed]
Grana Padano is sold in three different ripening stages:[citation needed]
- "Grana Padano" (9 to 16 months): texture still creamy, only slightly grainy
- "Grana Padano oltre 16 mesi" (over 16 months): crumblier texture, more pronounced taste
- "Grana Padano Riserva" (over 20 months): grainy, crumbly and full flavoured
Grana padano cheese typically contains cheese crystals, semi-solid to gritty crystalline spots that at least partially consist of the amino acid tyrosine.
See also
References
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External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to [[commons:Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).|Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).]]. |
- Consorzio per la Tutela del Formaggio Grana Padano (English)
- Zeppa, Giuseppe GRANA PADANO a cheese from Piedmont (English)
- Disciplinare di produzione (Italian)
- Video - How Grana Padano is made
- Photos of the production process
- Pages with reference errors
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with unsourced statements from September 2015
- All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases
- Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from September 2015
- Commons category link from Wikidata
- Articles with Italian-language external links
- Italian cheeses
- Cheeses of Veneto
- Cow's-milk cheeses
- Italian products with protected designation of origin
- Cheeses with designation of origin protected in the European Union