Ah ... Balsamico in Modena! Quality balsamic all starts and ends with just one ingredient, grapes.
Monica has made us educated consumers and connoisseurs.
I think Sonya is dreaming up new ways of using Balsamico in our daily dose of greens - kale, collards, and brussell sprouts. Look out Gord, I think there may be another vegan cooking course coming on!
You can tell the true quality balsamico by the title "Balsamico Tradizionale from Modena". Watch out for the supermarket Balsamico from Modena - because this is just bottled in Modena. You need to see the word "Tradizionale". The "Tradizionale" is made by only 30 families in a 30 km range in the Modena area and is controlled by a quality control consortium.
Now you may wonder how they control the quality - easy, the consortium controls the distinctive bottles and the actual bottling. The "Tradizionale" bottle is easily recognized -(the yellow cap is aged 12 years, the gold cap 25 years, just like a fine scotch. Go looking for it at the Italian Center.
Now certain members of out tour have asked for detail notes - so here goes!
The process starts with two grapes - either white (Trebbiano) for white balsamic, or white and black (Lambrusco) which are pressed, filtered (so no seeds or skins) and then cooked for 48 hours into a must. Each of the families uses their own recipe as to the percentage of white and black grapes. The must goes into a barrel and is shifted into progressively smaller barrels sometimes made of different woods (cherry, chestnut, mulberry, juniper and oak). Why progressively smaller barrels? Evaporation! This is because the barrels are left open, covered only by muslin cloth.
The barrel rotation is more complex than you would expect (moving 40% from barrel 1 to barrel 2, 30% from barrel 2 to barrel 3, 20% from barrel 3 to barrel 4, and 10 % from barrel 4 to barrel 5). The entire process takes 12 - 25 years.
Each year 10 percent is lost to evaporation. In fact, starting with 100 liters produces only 500 ml of finished 25 year aged Tradizionale - that's 99.5 % shrinkage. So, now you know why good balsamico costs so much!
These barrels are each used 50- 100 years or more, and are handed down to family members as wedding gifts. Their most prized barrel is from the 1500's and worth 60,000 Euros!
Now for the sampling experience.
Sample #1 - a white - aged in ash barrels for only 5 years (so it cannot carry the appellation "Tradizionale" which requires a minimum 12 years). Great on fish, arugula salad, asparagus and strawberries. Mighty fine!
Sample #2 - also a white balsamico - aged 8 years. Just a wee bit sweeter.
Sample #3 - their everyday balsamico - aged 6 years. Monica explained, "never cook with balsamico, just 3-4 drops, at the end". Great on tomatoes, and veg.
Sample #4 - 12 year "Tradizionale" yellow label - hmmm... Monica says - "great for steak, beef, pasta, risotto,eggs - but just 3-4 drops". Sonya - says, "think kale"!
Sample #5 - 25 year "Tradizionale" - gold label. Just 1-2 drops on Parmesan cheese, prosciutto ham, vanilla ice cream and fruit salad. Also used as a digestive!
Where can you get these fine products:
Amazon.ca or Amazon.com
Or - mail order from Acetaia Malpighi - www.acetaiamalpighi.it
You should also check out their website for the wonderful recipes.
Next we are off to the Ferrari museum, located next to the Ferrari plant in Maranello, just outside of Modena.
Enzo Ferrari was not particularly interested in making cars. He was mainly interested in creating motors that could push cars faster and faster. In order to do this, he needed a lot of funding. One of his colleagues suggested that they build cars in order to fund the development of more powerful engines. And so it began in 1947 after the war.
He had a lifelong hatred for Fiat, as he tried to get a job with them after the First World War, but was turned down. He had difficulty finding a job, but never lost his passion for horsepower! Bet you Fiat regretted that decision.
The logo of the prancing horse does not come from the idea of horsepower. Originally, the symbol was used by World War I pilot Francesco Baracca on his airplane. Following one of his wins at the Targa Florio, he met Francesco Baracca's parents, who told him that their son used to paint a prancing horse on his airplane and suggested that if Ferrari painted the horse on his cars, he would have good luck. Ferrari took their advice and started to use the black Prancing Horse on a yellow background (yellow being one of the colours of the city flag of his native Modena) as the official Ferrari logo.
The museum has sections for engines, cars, and Formula one vehicles.
This vehicle a Ferrari 250 GT 2+2 was in a section dedicated to some of the vehicles that Enzo liked to drive. It was the first Ferrari to have four comfortable seats available for passengers, hence the name 2 + 2.
Sonya took a shine to this one. While yellow is not my favourite colour, hey if that is what it takes to get a Ferrari, bring it on!!
We spent a good amount of time looking at all of the statistics of the the various engines, vehicles and formula one race cars.
Here are some Ferrari F1 statistics:
Races 965
Victories 235
Podiums 560
Fastest Laps 245
One/two finishes 83
One of Enzo's greatest accomplishments from his perspective was being, in part, responsible for getting Fiat out of the Formula One racing business. This apparently soothed his ego, after having been refused a job by them.
OK, this is likely as close as I will ever get to driving a production Ferrari. There was a test drive place not far from the museum, but time would not allow, and I would have had a hard time parting with €350 for a 15 minute drive!
After the Ferrari museum, we were off to Parma to learn how Parmigiano Reggiano (which I will shorten to PR), loosely known as Parmesan cheese is made. The latter however is not even close to the real thing!
We stopped at the Ciaolatte Organic Parmesan Cheese Agroalimentare (Agribusiness) where we met the co-owner named Afra or Affa (not sure which or how to spell it). She is a delightful soul in a quirky sort of way. Think of a mix between Joan Rivers and Phyllis Diller, only speaking animated Italian!
Afra was a pharmacist in the past, but came to this venture because her husband spotted this business for sale, so they bought the farm in 2000. Having met her, I don't think she has the personality of a pharmacist! Joan Rivers or Phyllis Diller as pharmacists? Really!
Here, Afra is trying to point out to Gloria who she thinks is Italian. She mistakenly chose me initially because I said good afternoon in a good Italian accent. When she learned that she was wrong, she blamed me for making her be wrong. Go figure!
When she saw Lou, pictured above, walking in, she immediately picked him out because, she said, he walked like the Godfather! Now Lou is a New York native of Italian descent now living in Florida, so score one for Afra.
Now Parmigiano Reggiano cheese is made up of 3 simple ingredients - milk, rennet and salt. In the Parma Reggio region there are 300 producers of PR, controlled by yet another consortium. It has to be aged for a minimum of 24 months. Some of her cheese wheels are aged for 36 months, and she has a few in the warehouse which are more than 4 years old. The older the cheese, the more amino acids there are, and the easier the cheese is to digest!
Now it takes 16 litres of milk to make one kilo of PR cheese. Each of the wheels weighs 40 kg (kilograms) (88 lbs). Every day they make 10 wheels of 40 kg cheese. Each morning they mix 600 litres of milk with some whey from the previous day to make curds of 45 kg. This will eventually become a 40 kg wheel, when completely finished. The daily process starts at 6:30 am, and by 11 am. is complete.
Here she is showing us the large copper vats that are used to heat the milk. The prior evenings milking comes into the vats from the big tables you see to the left. Added to this is the milk from the morning milking. The milk on the long tables from the prior evenings milking naturally separates overnight with the cream rising to the top. The skim milk is poured into the vats while the cream is kept back and used for butter, and ice cream.
The milk has to be heated to 55° Celsius, or 130° Farenheit. If you heat it more than this, you will kill the bacteria and ruin the cheese. They have to stir the mix constantly by hand to be sure that the curds reach a specific consistency and temperature. When they are done, the vat has a 90 kg ball of cheese that is separated in two by a large knife so that it can be made into two cheese wheels.
Now readers of this blog will realize that I have a big mouth, or at least a quick mouth, and it occasionally got me into trouble with Afra. I was quick to answer a few of Afra's questions in Italian when we started, so she latched on to me for the balance of the tour - Paulo, Paulo, Paulo! Now she also saw me taking notes (because Sonya was taking pictures so I had me take the notes), so Afra thought that I was a very attentive student! Fooled her, didn't I!
Anyway, here we are in the packing house. Behind her you see a lime green stencil that is used on every wheel of cheese. It provides specific information about the wheel, including the producer number, the date of production. The stencil you see above is wrapped around the fermenting cheese forms you see below it. The cheese rest here until they go into a salt bath to create the rind.
Here you can see the wheels to my left that have come out of the salt bath. Though very young, they already have a hardened rind. Next it was off to the storage shed.
Here the wheels will sit for a minimum of 24 months. During this time the cheese wheels sweat out some of the moisture that is inside the hardened rind. Each 10 days, a machine is used to clean and turn the wheels so that they can cure properly.
We were getting a little noisy in the storage building, so Afra attempted to bring us into line by using her whistle. Ironically, it made us laugh so hard that she had blow the whistle several more times!
The wheels are tested every three months by an inspector from the consortium. He uses a hammer to "sound" the wheel to determine if it has aged appropriately. If it passes inspection, he approves its with an official stamp of the consortium. Now it can be marketed as Parmiagano Reggiano!
Based on the numbers of rows and columns (17 rows with 35 in each row), we determined that there were more than 7,000 wheels in inventory. The market value of one kilo of PR is €16.40. Doing some quick and dirty math, we estimate that the wheels in inventory have a market value of about C$7 Million, assuming they are all ready for market. Wow - that is some inventory investment.
Here she is congratulating me for being such a studious observer. I can't confirm it, but I swear some of our group were mumbling "teacher's pet" under their breath! Little did she know she was giving a vegan cheese making lessons - best she never knows.
One last whistle to round us up to go for a tasting of the food and wine that she prepared. It was very gracious of her to provide such a spread, so despite the fact that we were almost an hour behind schedule, we partook of a lovely country meal, including her own homemade ice cream.
We all said goodbye and rolled onto the bus to our hotel in Parma!
Next stop - Venezia!!
Ciao for now,
SnP
He had a lifelong hatred for Fiat, as he tried to get a job with them after the First World War, but was turned down. He had difficulty finding a job, but never lost his passion for horsepower! Bet you Fiat regretted that decision.
The logo of the prancing horse does not come from the idea of horsepower. Originally, the symbol was used by World War I pilot Francesco Baracca on his airplane. Following one of his wins at the Targa Florio, he met Francesco Baracca's parents, who told him that their son used to paint a prancing horse on his airplane and suggested that if Ferrari painted the horse on his cars, he would have good luck. Ferrari took their advice and started to use the black Prancing Horse on a yellow background (yellow being one of the colours of the city flag of his native Modena) as the official Ferrari logo.
The museum has sections for engines, cars, and Formula one vehicles.
This vehicle a Ferrari 250 GT 2+2 was in a section dedicated to some of the vehicles that Enzo liked to drive. It was the first Ferrari to have four comfortable seats available for passengers, hence the name 2 + 2.
Sonya took a shine to this one. While yellow is not my favourite colour, hey if that is what it takes to get a Ferrari, bring it on!!
We spent a good amount of time looking at all of the statistics of the the various engines, vehicles and formula one race cars.
Here are some Ferrari F1 statistics:
Races 965
Victories 235
Podiums 560
Fastest Laps 245
One/two finishes 83
One of Enzo's greatest accomplishments from his perspective was being, in part, responsible for getting Fiat out of the Formula One racing business. This apparently soothed his ego, after having been refused a job by them.
OK, this is likely as close as I will ever get to driving a production Ferrari. There was a test drive place not far from the museum, but time would not allow, and I would have had a hard time parting with €350 for a 15 minute drive!
After the Ferrari museum, we were off to Parma to learn how Parmigiano Reggiano (which I will shorten to PR), loosely known as Parmesan cheese is made. The latter however is not even close to the real thing!
We stopped at the Ciaolatte Organic Parmesan Cheese Agroalimentare (Agribusiness) where we met the co-owner named Afra or Affa (not sure which or how to spell it). She is a delightful soul in a quirky sort of way. Think of a mix between Joan Rivers and Phyllis Diller, only speaking animated Italian!
Afra was a pharmacist in the past, but came to this venture because her husband spotted this business for sale, so they bought the farm in 2000. Having met her, I don't think she has the personality of a pharmacist! Joan Rivers or Phyllis Diller as pharmacists? Really!
Here, Afra is trying to point out to Gloria who she thinks is Italian. She mistakenly chose me initially because I said good afternoon in a good Italian accent. When she learned that she was wrong, she blamed me for making her be wrong. Go figure!
When she saw Lou, pictured above, walking in, she immediately picked him out because, she said, he walked like the Godfather! Now Lou is a New York native of Italian descent now living in Florida, so score one for Afra.
Now Parmigiano Reggiano cheese is made up of 3 simple ingredients - milk, rennet and salt. In the Parma Reggio region there are 300 producers of PR, controlled by yet another consortium. It has to be aged for a minimum of 24 months. Some of her cheese wheels are aged for 36 months, and she has a few in the warehouse which are more than 4 years old. The older the cheese, the more amino acids there are, and the easier the cheese is to digest!
Now it takes 16 litres of milk to make one kilo of PR cheese. Each of the wheels weighs 40 kg (kilograms) (88 lbs). Every day they make 10 wheels of 40 kg cheese. Each morning they mix 600 litres of milk with some whey from the previous day to make curds of 45 kg. This will eventually become a 40 kg wheel, when completely finished. The daily process starts at 6:30 am, and by 11 am. is complete.
Here she is showing us the large copper vats that are used to heat the milk. The prior evenings milking comes into the vats from the big tables you see to the left. Added to this is the milk from the morning milking. The milk on the long tables from the prior evenings milking naturally separates overnight with the cream rising to the top. The skim milk is poured into the vats while the cream is kept back and used for butter, and ice cream.
The milk has to be heated to 55° Celsius, or 130° Farenheit. If you heat it more than this, you will kill the bacteria and ruin the cheese. They have to stir the mix constantly by hand to be sure that the curds reach a specific consistency and temperature. When they are done, the vat has a 90 kg ball of cheese that is separated in two by a large knife so that it can be made into two cheese wheels.
Now readers of this blog will realize that I have a big mouth, or at least a quick mouth, and it occasionally got me into trouble with Afra. I was quick to answer a few of Afra's questions in Italian when we started, so she latched on to me for the balance of the tour - Paulo, Paulo, Paulo! Now she also saw me taking notes (because Sonya was taking pictures so I had me take the notes), so Afra thought that I was a very attentive student! Fooled her, didn't I!
Anyway, here we are in the packing house. Behind her you see a lime green stencil that is used on every wheel of cheese. It provides specific information about the wheel, including the producer number, the date of production. The stencil you see above is wrapped around the fermenting cheese forms you see below it. The cheese rest here until they go into a salt bath to create the rind.
Here you can see the wheels to my left that have come out of the salt bath. Though very young, they already have a hardened rind. Next it was off to the storage shed.
Here the wheels will sit for a minimum of 24 months. During this time the cheese wheels sweat out some of the moisture that is inside the hardened rind. Each 10 days, a machine is used to clean and turn the wheels so that they can cure properly.
We were getting a little noisy in the storage building, so Afra attempted to bring us into line by using her whistle. Ironically, it made us laugh so hard that she had blow the whistle several more times!
The wheels are tested every three months by an inspector from the consortium. He uses a hammer to "sound" the wheel to determine if it has aged appropriately. If it passes inspection, he approves its with an official stamp of the consortium. Now it can be marketed as Parmiagano Reggiano!
Based on the numbers of rows and columns (17 rows with 35 in each row), we determined that there were more than 7,000 wheels in inventory. The market value of one kilo of PR is €16.40. Doing some quick and dirty math, we estimate that the wheels in inventory have a market value of about C$7 Million, assuming they are all ready for market. Wow - that is some inventory investment.
Here she is congratulating me for being such a studious observer. I can't confirm it, but I swear some of our group were mumbling "teacher's pet" under their breath! Little did she know she was giving a vegan cheese making lessons - best she never knows.
One last whistle to round us up to go for a tasting of the food and wine that she prepared. It was very gracious of her to provide such a spread, so despite the fact that we were almost an hour behind schedule, we partook of a lovely country meal, including her own homemade ice cream.
We all said goodbye and rolled onto the bus to our hotel in Parma!
Next stop - Venezia!!
Ciao for now,
SnP
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