Making Parmesan Cheese
Pour milk into vats, let it sit overnight;
the cream will be rising until it’s just right
and can be skimmed off to make butter. Now warm
the milk gently up so you do it no harm.
Add whey and add rennet which makes the milk curdle,
stir gently until you have taken that hurdle.
Scoop curd out with muslin, dividing the whole
in two, tie the cloth and suspend from a pole
so the liquid can drip off. Then shape in a mold,
stamp the rind and let sit until it’s two days old.
Now immerse it in brine for about twenty days,
then it goes on a rack for maturing. It stays
there for twelve months at least to be earning it’s name
and be called “Parmesan”, a label of fame.
But if you give it three full years to rest
it develops the tyrosine crystals, that’s best:
a creamy and salty hard cheese with some crunch,
that is something delicious for people to munch.
November 11, 2018
For contest “Cheese”
Sponsored by Barry Stebbings
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