The seven production steps
1. Two milkings
Evening milk rests overnight so cream partially rises and can be skimmed, then it's blended with fresh whole morning milk — a disciplinare requirement, not a stylistic choice.
2. Coagulation and cutting (spinatura)
Milk, natural whey starter and rennet are heated in bell-shaped copper vats (caldaie) until curd forms and separates from whey; the casaro cuts it into small granules with a tool called a spino.
3. Cooking and extraction (estrazione)
The cut curd is cooked briefly, settles to the bottom of the vat, and is lifted out in cloth as a single mass — traditionally split into twin cheeses from one vat.
4. Molding (fasce)
The curd is pressed into fasce, molds that shape the wheel and later hold the plastic identification band and rind markings.
5. Brining (salamoia)
A few days after molding, wheels move into a salamoia (brine bath) for roughly three weeks, absorbing salt entirely through the rind — no salt is ever mixed into the curd.
6. Aging (magazzino di stagionatura)
Wheels rest in an aging cellar for a legal minimum of 12 months, commonly extended to 24, 36 or 48+ months, developing a drier texture and, in older wheels, crunchy tyrosine crystals.
7. Inspection (battitura)
Before branding, a trained battitore taps each wheel with a small hammer, listening for cracks or hollow spots. Only wheels that pass are branded and sold as Parmigiano Reggiano.
To see how these steps line up with a scheduled visit, readwhat happens on a Parmesan dairy tour, and for exact timing, seewhat time Parmigiano Reggiano is actually made.
Watch the process in person
Tours timed around the morning production window let you see the vat, curd-cutting and extraction stages described above.
See available toursSome links on this page are affiliate links — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. See our affiliate disclosure.
Key vocabulary used above
This site uses the Italian terms dairies actually use on-site, since English paraphrases can blur distinctions that matter (a "mold" and a "brine bath" are very different steps). For a full bilingual reference, see ourcaseificio Italian–English glossary.
Frequently asked questions
Is any part of this process automated?
Some caseifici use mechanical aids for lifting and moving wheels, but the disciplinare requires the core steps — coagulation in copper vats, hand-guided curd-cutting, and the tap-test inspection — to remain under the casaro’s direct judgment rather than fully automated.
What happens to the whey (siero) left over?
Whey drawn off after coagulation is commonly reused, often fed to pigs raised for Prosciutto di Parma or used in ricotta production, rather than discarded.
Why is one vat traditionally split into two wheels?
The cooked curd mass lifted from a single caldaia is large enough to be divided and shaped into twin wheels, a practice tied to vat size and handling rather than a fixed rule for every dairy.
How we verified this: Every production step and its terminology is cross-checked against the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium's published disciplinare, the enforced rulebook for the PDO product. This page describes the general method, not the exact layout or schedule of any single caseificio.