One thing (among many) that I love about cheese is that you don’t have to spend a fortune to taste the gold standards. A cult Cabernet Sauvignon can cost more than a round-trip ticket to Europe, but anyone with ten dollars can get a sizeable taste of a cult cheese. And that’s what I would call the three Parmigiano Reggianos pictured above. They are costly, acclaimed, rare and sought after by in-the-know cheese fans. Are they more compelling than the everyday Parm you’ve been using? Well, it won’t cost you much to find out.
Most Parmigiano Reggiano today is made with the milk of Friesian cows (similar to Holsteins), renowned as heavy producers. In the decades following World War II, Italian farmers gradually abandoned the regional breeds in favor of the more productive Dutch Friesians. Who can blame farmers for chasing more yield? But for cheesemaking, the Friesian milk is inferior, experts say, with less protein and fat.
Alarmed by the potential extinction of the heritage breeds, a few dairy farmers in the Parmigiano Reggiano production zone began efforts to save them. Today, at a handful of Northern Italian creameries, cheesemakers are making Parmigiano Reggiano as their ancestors did, with milk from the endangered Bruna Alpina (brown cow), Razza Reggiana (red cow) and Bianca Modenese (white cow) breeds. Although the PDO requires only 12 months’ aging, the heritage-breed Parms are all matured at least 24 months.
Big deal wheel: White Cow Parmigiano from Rosola di Zocca
Rogers Collection, a Maine importer, is bringing in wheels of all three types for chefs and consumers willing to pay the higher price. Here’s what to know about the Rogers cheeses:
Brown Cow Parmigiano Reggiano: The Rogers wheels come from Valserena, the oldest creamery in the Parmigiano Reggiano PDO zone. Valserena is one of the few farmstead producers of Parmigiano Reggiano, meaning they make the cheese on the farm from their own milk. They are also one of only four Parmigiano Reggiano producers (out of 300) using exclusively Bruna Alpina milk, appreciated for its high butterfat content. Thank you, Zingerman’s, for these details.
Red Cow Parmigiano Reggiano: This farmstead producer, Grana d’Oro, makes only four to five wheels a day from the Razza Reggiana, known colloquially as the vacca rossa (red cow). Rogers Collection tasting notes cite tropical fruit flavors and a deep nuttiness. I found it more buttery and creamy than the Brown Cow, less sweet and a bit more piquant. The 24-month Grana d’Oro won a top prize at the World Cheese Awards last fall.
Cow royalty: Bianca Modenese
White Cow Parmigiano Reggiano: This rarity is made by a co-op with seven members, some of whom have only a couple of cows. The co-op produces only two wheels a day and is one of three or four Parm producers to use only Bianca Modenese milk. These cows produce less than half the milk of a Friesian but it’s superior for cheesemaking. Their numbers have dropped from about 200,000 in 1955 to only a few hundred today. My sample was creamy and fruitier than the other two, with the biggest aroma and deepest color. Massimo Bottura, the famous chef from Modena, buys this cheese.
My samples had been in vacuum-sealed packages for months. Tasting a piece off a fresh-cut wheel would be a more revealing experience. I can tell you which sample I preferred (the White Cow) but I’m not convinced I would prefer it consistenly. I asked Lydia Burns, a sales rep for Rogers who has sampled way more of these heritage-breed wheels, if she could identify them blind.
“If they’re fresh-cut, I can tell the difference from the smell,” said Burns. “The Red Cow has a distinct strawberry jam/fruity note. The Valserena has more floral or ‘pretty’ aromatics. The White Cow has the most savory profile. The others tend to be a little more delicate. But texture is what separates the heritage Parms. To me, they’re more elastic, not like sandpaper.”
Expect to pay about $30 a pound for the Valserena cheese, closer to $40 a pound for the two others. I consider these table cheeses, too precious to cook with. Enjoy them at the end of a meal with a good red wine. A few drops of aceto balsamico tradizionale di Modena is never a bad idea.
Look here for retailers offering at least one of these cheeses. A few merchants are buying whole wheels; others carry the vacuum-sealed pre-cuts. Ditalia sells a boxed kit with all three if you want to do a comparative tasting.