Boni SpA produces in its three cheese factories about 230 Parmigiano Reggiano wheels daily, with a total amount of 80.000 wheels per year.
The greatest pride of the Company is its modern cheese factory, where about 150 Parmigiano Reggiano wheels of the dairy 2331 are produced daily; 50 wheels out of these are produced with milk coming from S.A.P.A.R .farm. The other part of milk is selected within the best local farms. Each kilogram of cheese contains fifteen litres of milk; so, six hundred litres of milk are required to produce a cheese weighing approximately 38 kilograms.
In order to guarantee to the customer high quality levels, our production system is shaped according to the Manufacturing Regulation of Parmigiano Reggiano. The production suits the tradition initiated by Boni and his family: therefore, the only ingredients allowed during the production of cheese are milk, salt, rennet, and - last but not least -, the wise methods of the dairyman. All of these methods are expected to guarantee the quality of our handmade and natural product. |
After being partially skimmed by natural cream surfacing in wide and shallow basins, the milk of the previous evening is poured into the cauldron, together with full-cream milk produced in the morning: the result of this processing is a mix of partially skimmed milk with integral bacterial flora.
After this mix of milk is heated, starter (a natural culture of milk enzymes that comes from the processing of the cheese of the previous day) is added; for the final step, the dairyman adds the rennet, that leads to the final curd.
Then the curd is broken by means of a tool called “spino”: the small granules resulting from this process are cooked and, once they have formed a compact mass on the bottom of the cauldron, they are extracted. Each mass is cut into two equal halves, each of which will give birth to a Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. The “twins” – as we traditionally call these two cheeses- are put into the mould, an instrument that lends them their typical round shape. Once in the mould, each cheese is marked with a casein plaque that denotes its identification code. Some hours later, when the cheese is still soft, the trademarks of the Consortium are applied: they identify the matriculation number of the cheese factory (2331) and the date of production (year and month) and carry the label “Parmigiano Reggiano”, written with little points on the lateral rind of the cheese.
Within three days after the production, the wheels of cheese are put into brine tanks, where they are left for 20 days.
After the salting, they are brought to the seasoning room. |
