In Parma, Italy on a cold spring day, a local signora from the neighborhood stops by a Parmigiano Cheese farm. She’s performing her physical therapy – with leftover whey.
The signora comes every morning to this Parmigiano farm. As she swims her hands around and around, the whey – which consists of a high dosage of calcium – soothes the pain in her hands. During this half hour, she forgets about her olden age and arthritis. Talk about the wonders of cheese – hey?
Cheese making lesson 101: Cheese is what you get when you mix milk with rennet at a medium to high temperature. What is rennet? It’s the enzyme in the fourth stomach of a baby ruminent - calf, lamb, or any other creature with four stomachs that eats grass – more or less. For means of digestion, the rennet enzyme is used by the baby ruminant to break down its mother’s milk.
What’s whey? When the rennet enzyme is added to the milk – remember, rennet comes from the fourth stomach of the calf - the enzyme causes the milk to break down into two substances: curds and whey. Curds are white because they have the protein called casein; this is what becomes cheese. Whey is the leftover stuff – it’s yellow - and its usages can vary.
In the case of the signora in Parma, the whey is used medicinally. And it seems to work. In fact, a lot of Parmigiano farms give a percentage of the whey to local physical therapy rehabilitation centers. The whey is mostly used for the strengthening of broken bones. Can humans actually absorb calcium through their skin? - any doctors out there?
The Parmigiano making-process creates much more whey than curds. If you do the math, about 168 gallons of milk are needed to make one form of parmigiano cheese. The form weighs 220 pounds. While on my visit, I forgot to ask how much left over whey they produce, but it’s a lot more than the amount of curds, and nothing goes to waste.
Along with donating the whey to the hospitals, Parmigiano cheese farms also sell the yellow whey to other companies for a variety of uses. A French company purchases the whey to make cookies – the whey is sweet. Other companies buy the whey and recook it – this is known as ricotta cheese. The last way the whey is used – no pun intended – is my favorite and simply amazes me. Make this your fact of the day: The whey is mixed into food and fed to the pigs of Parma. Given that whey is extremely sweet and even lemony in flavor, it’s the reason Prosciutto of Parma is dolce or sweet.
Talk about a food chain. Like I said, make it your fact of the day – leave no one out on this secret. And stay tuned, more on Parmigiano cheese to come…
April 8, 2009 at 4:53 pm |
Why don’t you look it up yourself? Aren’t you in graduate school? I thought you were learning this.