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Costliness of Parmigiano Reggiano
Parmigiano Reggiano is usually one of the pricey cheeses sold in gourmet food stores and supermarkets. However, this is not completely true. First of all, Parmigiano-Reggiano is a hard cheese that undergoes a long maturation process. This means that its water content is only 30%, i.e. it is a highly concentrated cheese in which the nutrients present in milk (casein, fat, minerals, vitamin, etc.) undergo a special “drying”, or better dehydration, process both inside the dairy and during the maturation period. Consequently, with 100 grams of Parmigiano-Reggiano, you actually take home 70 grams of nutrients. Instead, if you bought soft or fresh cheese (sometimes delicious to eat), the water content is often up to 50%. Thus the amount of nutrients is lower and not much effort goes into it after it is produced.
In addition, the cattle producing the milk for Parmigiano Reggiano is mostly fed with hay of the area and is not allowed to eat other feeds (e.g. fermented forage), which cost less, but would later cause quality problems during maturation.
Furthermore, you should consider that maturation of Parmigiano Reggiano is achieved over a long period of time. The cheese takes at least 24 months to reach its peak in quality. This means that for this time period, i.e. from the moment it is made until consumer purchases it, the producer and the maturation facility just invest in it to ensure that they get the best quality. This extended investment period makes the cheese costly! However, most significantly, all this makes Parmigiano Reggiano not only a valuable product, but it is also worth its price.
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