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History
The discovery of butter does not date back to a specific era, this is due to the remote legend that speak about various origins of the product. Some speak of the Shi'ites who inhabited the areas between the Danube and the Don between the VII and II century B.C., some claim it was discovered by the inhabitants of Asian India, as stated in some holy hymns dated from approximately 1500-2000 B.C. Nonetheless it is said that butter was invented in the northern regions especially as butter needs temperatures of approximately 15°C which would be easier to achieve in less hot regions.
Other sources, instead, state that the ancient Hebrews spoke about butter in the Old Testament and that they were the first to develop the art of producting butter and appreciate it for its purely nutritional characteristics and as a food. Whatever its origin, butter had different uses other than as a food, it was used as a cosmetic, as a medicine, and as an excellent treatment oitment.
The origin of Grana Padano PDO is identified as being the area of lower Lombardy, between the Po and Milan, bordered on the west by Ticino and on the east by the Adda River, its heart being between Codogno and Lodi.
Grana Padano PDO's date of birth has been set in 1135, the year of the foundation of the Abbey of Chiaravalle: the Cistercian monks encouraged agriculture and the economic, and social recovery of the area. The monks initially reclaimed the lands, working hard at the reclamation and deforestation of the territory. The fertile lands that were brought to light then permitted the development of fervent agricolture and the abbundance of meadowlands favoured the breeding of cattle and sheep. Soon the quantity of milk produced exceeded daily needs so it was necessary to find a way in which to make it keep. The solution came once again from the monasteries.
This led to the development of a hard-bodied cheese that even if aged maintained all the nutritional qualities of milk and its taste and intensity even improved with age. At the end of the XII century the sale of this so-called formaggio di grana (granular cheese) was already well established at fairs and markets in the vicinity of monastery walls, but also in the city centres.
Shortly thereafter, this aged cheese became available also in centres far away from the lands of the Po. It was called by different names, depending on its origin: Lodesano, Piasentino, Melanese, although of "identical shape and substance".
At the end of the nineteenth century the cheesemaking industry was flourishing. After the Italian unification the production area had increased and, especially in Lombardy, large Dairies were established that were able to work hundreds of liters of milk every day. In the early twentieth century, in Emilia there was still the production of grana for use as reggiano or parmigiano, which developed in parallel to the grana from Lombardy, its production centered around Reggio Emilia and Parma.
After the second world war farms and cheesemaking industries continued to grow with a move toward the specific specialisation of animals for the production of milk which led to the need to seek new solutions for foods.
On 1 June 1951, the Stresa Convention established the birth of Grana Padano Parmigiano Reggiano.
Source: www.granapadano.com
The history of milk is linked to the history of man from the earliest times, certainly from the start of herding and breeding. 8000 years ago Mesopotamian populations were already attempting to domesticate milk-producing animals and it is highly likely that already in those times man was trying to use and work with milk for food purposes.
Ancient Rome contributed an important chapter in the history of milk and its derivatives. The ancient Greeks were different in that they only drank sheep's milk. In Rome they began using cow's milk as food and as a raw material in the production of cheese, indeed it was the Romans who spread cheesemaking techniques around the many provinces of the empire. Latin literature has left us many references on this matter, the first one being the myth of the foundation of the city where Romolus and Remus were orphaned and were brought up on the milk of a she-wolf, and the argument between Marco Terenzio Marrone and Columella in the Ist century B.C. on the best techniques for making cheese.
In ancient and medieval medicine milk was considered to be an "excess" from the organism resulting from the whitening of the blood cells by the breasts. It has always stimulated great interest and in all eras milk was renowned for its great nutritional qualities. Over time milk has been attributed to have various and disparate soothing medicinal qualities (for the chest and lungs), dermatological remedies (for the color of the skin), a hepatic remedy (as anti-occlusive), intestinal remedy (as a lubricant to heal ulcers), digestive remedy (to sooth heart burn). For example, Avicenna said milk was a balm against migraines, while later the Greek botanist Dioscoride maintained that milk was a cure against poison.
Over the centuries and in its progress, medical science did deal with milk, its potential therapeutic uses and its nutritional values. Medical development have given us more effective means to treat illnesses than the "alchemies" of the past. Nonetheless milk still holds traces of its glorious past as a medicine, in its more or less household use as a cure for lesser ills (think of all the proverbial cups of milk, honey and whisky that have been drunk as a remedy against the common cold), and as an "ingredient" in bodycare products (facial beauty masks, soaps, detergents…), all of which are diect descendants of Cleopatra and Poppea's baths in milk.
Mascarpone is created by working cream from cow's milk, characteristic of some areas of Lombardy, especially Mantova, Cremona, Lodi and Abbiategrasso (MI). There seem to be two possible origins of the name of this traditionally Lombard cheese: one is from the Italianisation of the exclamation "mas que buono" (more than good) pronouned by a dignitary of the Spanish Court during their domination of the area of Lombardy; the other from the dialect term "mascherpa" or "mascarpìa" that denoted a sub-product from the formation of "Stracchino" cheese. Historically Mascarpone was only produced in winter, as it had to be stored at low temperatures and it was sold in bulk or in small gauze packets weighing 100-200 grammes each.
In Milan there is a saying: "he was like the mascherpa!" to mean that a person was surprised. The anecdote that this refers to is the story of an errand-boy who had to take cheeses from Lodi to Milan so they could be sold at the market. Because of the length of the journey (32 Km), or because he had wasted time in idle chatter … when he arrived at destination his basket was surprisingly empty as the heat had caused the mascarpone to dissolve completely and to leak out of the spaces in the wickerwork.
The history of cream is naturally tied to that of butter as the two productions arise from the same process. Despite this, legends and stories that speak specifically of cream are very scarse in comparison to the rich literature that accompanies the the discovery of butter. It is said that the term cream ("panna") comes from "panno" (cloth) due to the specific nature of its preparation: the fatter and lighter part of the milk would rise to the surface and cover the liquid like a cloth.
Parmigiano Reggiano has strong secure roots in the lands from which it originates, the Pianura Padana. It is in the provinces of Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna left fo the Reno River and Mantova to the right of the Po River that the milk is produced and is worked into the cheese.
In the XIII century the cheesemakers in the large businesses run by Benedictine and Cistercian monks started working this type of cheese. Helped by natural elements such as the specific nature of the farms and the measured combination of aricultural-geographical–environmental circumstances and human resources allowed a production of high quality milk that could withstand a slow maturation and gave it unmistakable taste. The cheesemakers immediately realised the value of the product they had created. For centuries they kept to the traditional way of working, aware that each single passage in the hand-crafted process gave the cheese a quality that was impossibile to achieve by any other means that would nonetheless have simplified the production process. Proud of their experience and the impeccable technique acquired over the centuries, the producers of Parmigiano Reggiano still today strictly observe the most traditional aspects of their work.
Source: www.parmigiano-reggiano.it
We do not have precise information as to the moment when the production of provolone began, but it is thought that this cheese originated in Basilicata, and precisely in the province of Potenza, from where it spread into the other regions.
The name seems to derive from the term prova or provola, indicating the cheese sample taken during processing to control the degree of pulling of the same.
The historical reconstruction tells us that the processing technique was extended to northern Italy presumably towards the end of the nineteenth century, when brothers Margotta di Muro Lucana, moved to the province of Brescia in the municipality of Borgo San Giacomo, giving life to a flourishing production of provolone. This also permitted other provinces in northern Italy to learn the production technique both of sweet and spicy provolone.
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