Etruscans knew it

The frontpiece of the "Libro Novo", by Cristoforo da Messisbugo is reproduced here below, together with part of the menu quoted in the text. On the opposite page is a reproduction of the frontpiece of the XVIth century comment to Apicius.
The Latin fragment in the middle says, "Two kinds of cheese are now competing for pre-eminence in Italy. These are the "Marzolino", thus named by the Etruscans because in Etruria, they made it in march, and the "Parmigiano" of the Cisalpine region, otherwise known as the "Maggengo" from the month of may.

The third quotation is an extract from a work by Francesco Maria Grapaldo, commenting on passages out of Vitruvius and other latin authors: "Parmesan cheese: the cheese of Parma is today acknowledged to be the best in Italy, whereas at one time they took pride in the volume of their wool productionl. Hence, the conplet... these are the noble fruits of Parma milk... ".

How Parmigiano-Reggiano is made

 How fitting in this context is the humble word "made". Parmigiano-Reggiano, a child delivered for centuries by loving hands, still greets this world unscarred by the impersonal brutalities of metal. The prized milk of the "zona tipica", treated with rennet and heat, is naturally matured and aged for two years or more. The cheeses are carefully turned, cared for, and watched, a process not without risks and anxieties, because the miracle of a perfect ripening is left essentially to nature.

It is at this stage that the real difference between Parmigiano-Reggiano and other cheeses appears. The imitations so often lumped together under the generic term of "grana" are industrial, mass products turned out in vast mechanised plants using technical processes which cut production costs at the expense, as every gourmet knows, of the "heart" and flavour which only the artisan's respectful handling and nature's patient maturing can guarantee.

A first class raw material calls for first class methods. The milk of the "zona tipica" of Parma and Reggio Emilia is a regional specialty to the genesis of which soil, climate, fodder-vegetation, cattle-rearing traditions, and other factors less easy to categorise, have contributed with especially happy results.

A masterpiece of cheesemaking can be realised only through the operation of small, rural cheese dairies, where the farmers can deliver their product straight after milking and in a homogeneous condition. The producers of Parmigiano-Reggiano are reconciled to the fact that this means that economic considerations must in part be sacrificed to the excellence of the product. The milk is of course subjected to modern hygienic control, but the role of science goes no further. Tested but unspoiled, the milk is used with its natural flora intact. No foreign bodies (i.e. anti-fermentatives, etc.) are added. Parmigiano-Reggiano is a "Whole Food", of a flavour that is unmistakably "Old world".