Grana Padano

Grana Padano
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Country of origin	Italy
Region, town	Emilia-Romagna: province of Piacenza Lombardy: provinces of Bergamo, Brescia Cremona, Lodi, Mantua (to the left of the Po), Milan and Pavia Piedmont: province of Cuneo Trentino: province of Trentino Veneto: province of Padua, Verona Vicenza, Rovigo and Treviso, In addition to these main centres production is permitted in Emilia Romagna: province of Bologna (to the right of the Reno), Ferrara, Ravenna, Forlì-Cesena. and Rimini Lombardy: provinces of Como, Lecco, Sondrio and Varese Piedmont: provinces of Alessandria, Asti, Biella, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Novara, Turin and Vercelli Veneto: province of Venice
Source of milk	Cows
Pasteurised	No
Texture	Hard
Aging time	8–20 months
Certification	Italy: DOC 1955 EU: PDO 1996
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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.

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. By the year 1477, it was regarded as one of the most famous cheeses of Italy. It can last a long time without spoiling, sometimes aging up to two years. 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.

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. The cows are milked twice a day, the milk is left to stand, and then partially skimmed. 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.

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.

Grana Padano is sold in three different ripening stages:

• "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

• Parmigiano-Reggiano
• Reggianito

External links

• 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