pin dot press - Parmigiano Reggiano

PIN DOT PRESS
™
2011
Parmesan
Crosses the
Atlantic
This is the strange story
of how a cheese born in
Parma, Italy left home
and crossed an ocean
with a French name at
least 200 years ago and
possibly more.
Parm a a n d t h e
Fren c h Co n n e c t i o n
V O L U M E 5 • I S S U e 3
Shiver me timbers! Thar be
Parmesan on Treasure Island.
B
en Gunn, an ex-pirate, had been
marooned on Treasure Island and
all he dreamed of after eating nothing
but goat, berries and oysters for three
years was “a piece of cheese—toasted
mostly.” This was the message young
Jim Hawkins took back to Dr. Livesey,
who whipped out a small decorated
box saying, “You’ve seen my snuffbox, haven’t you? And you never saw
me take snuff; the reason being that
in my snuff-box I carry a piece of
Parmesan cheese—a cheese made in
Italy, very nutritious. Well that’s for
Ben Gunn!”
And so with the stroke of his deft
pen, adventure author Robert Lewis
Stevenson immortalized Parmesan
cheese in his famous novel, Treasure
Island, which has been a literary
classic since 1883. Ever since then
Stevenson has been informing his
readers that Italy is the place of origin
of Parmesan cheese and that it is very
nutritious. The perfect food for anyone stranded on a desert island!
Since the Italian Renaissance the Dukes
of Parma had close ties to French nobility through marriage, politics and
With an increase in transportation, the popularity of
commerce. During this time producfine foods found a warm welcome worldwide.
tion of the local hard cheese, Caesum
Paramensis, (Latin for cheese from
Parma) – a masterful invention by the
local monastic communities—began to be produced by An American in Pari s
the noble families. It was, after all, an amazing food that Even before arriving in France in 1784 to serve as the
allowed the nutrition of fresh milk to be preserved in diplomatic minister for the new United States of Amera cheese that was durable, long-lasting and very trans- ica, Thomas Jefferson had developed a sophisticated
portable. However, the nobles had a different name for knowledge and awareness of French cuisine. According
this cheese, Parmesano, which by the 1530s had come to to Damon Lee Fowler, “It is important to remember
indicate its origin in Parma. Even then Parmesano made that the French were in America long before this para terrific gift and records show that it frequently made ticular American was in France, and Jefferson was no
its way north to the French courts where the name was stranger to French cooking. Decades before he lived in
Paris, he enjoyed meals prepared by Frenchmen both at
shortened to Parmesan.
As the Italian Renaissance gave way to the Baroque the Governor’s Palace in Williamsburg, where he dined
age, France’s political, diplomatic and even gastronomic regularly during his student days, and at the residence
influence grew. Parmesan gradually made its way into he and James Monroe shared in Annapolis. Like other
kitchens all over France and in 1690 “Fromage de Par- Virginians of his class, he inherited from Europe an unme,” cheese from Parma, was included in the complete derstanding of French food as an ‘international culinary
dictionary of the French Language by scholar-cleric, language’ that communicated status and style. Just as
Antoine Furetière. During the 1700s cuisine was further the language of France had become the language of diinternationalized according to the French model and plomacy, its cuisine was the culinary equivalent.”
Nevertheless, Jefferson was anxious to cultivate “the
within this model the most important cheeses were Parmesan and Gruyère. French chefs with Italian sound- art of French cookery” among his help and so he paid
ing names, like Vincent de la Capella, worked for the to have James Hemings, one of his slaves, accompany
noble class and included Parmesan in recipes for fish, him to Paris. Jefferson, too, wanted to learn about the
vegetables and duck. They even differentiated the use of foods and wines of Europe, so in 1787 at the age of 44
Parmesan cheese according to the season of production. he set off on a twelve-hundred mile journey to SouthThe aromatic and fuller-fat Parmesan of May was the ern France and Northern Italy to study viticulture, rice
perfect table cheese and the stronger-tasting, drier Par- production and the making of Parmesan cheese. Not
mesan of late summer and early autumn was the perfect satisfied with the information he gathered on this trip,
he sent an emissary, William Short, back the following
cooking cheese.
PARMESAN
IN OLD
SAVANNAH
Story by Damon Lee Fowler
It is often supposed that
Colonial Savannah, as capitol
of Britain’s youngest colony,
was less sophisticated gastronomically than Charleston
and Williamsburg. This is not
helped by the fact that most of
the city’s Colonial fabric and
records burned in the fires of
1795 and 1820.
But what does survive
paints a surprisingly different
picture. Advertisements and
import records in the city’s
earliest newspaper, The Georgia Guardian, are filled with
cosmopolitan fare— wines
from mainland Europe and
Madeira, beer, cordials, Italian
olives and olive oil, capers,
anchovies, coffee, chocolate,
tea, spices, onions, and—sig-
PARMESAN IN OLD SAVANNAH
nificantly—cheese.
Being English colonials, Savannah
merchants advertised only English cheeses
by name, but published reports for imports
exclusive of British goods include suggestively large quantities of cheese—for example, 3400 pounds in the second quarter
of 1765 and 3000 pounds in the first two
quarters of 1766. Since Parmesan cheese
was by then widely distributed throughout
Europe and Britain, it isn’t unreasonable to
speculate that it was among these imports.
What is interesting is that, when
cookbooks penned by Georgians began
appearing in the second half of the nineteenth century, references to Parmesan are
very off-hand. Annabella Hill, a LaGrange
matron who wrote Georgia’s culinary
bible, Mrs. Hill’s New Cook Book (1867),
mentions Parmesan rarely but casually,
suggesting that it was available by the time
of the Civil War.
By the turn of the century, references
were so casual as to suggest that Parmesan had become a staple in well-to-do
Savannah households. A 1904 cookbook
says “Parmesan cheese . . . add(s) nicety”
to stuffed tomatoes, and by 1910 it’s the
first choice for cheese biscuits, a popular
savory pastry for tea. But perhaps the most
telling recipe is this classic Roman dish
from that 1904 book, which shows that
Savannah’s cooks were by then using Parmesan with enthusiasm and authenticity.
Gnocchi a la Romana
From Favorite Recipe from Savannah
Homes, 1904. Spelling, punctuation, and
abbreviations are all original.
(This is a macaroni course. Make with
Semoule.)
Boil 1 scant qt. milk with 3 oz. butter, salt
and a little nutmeg. Put in 5½ oz. semoule
(or yellow Italian macaroni flour if it can be
had.) Cook this mixture ½ hour, then mix
in yolks of 5 (five) eggs with a little Parmesan cheese, mixing thoroughly. Turn out
the paste on a buttered board and when
it is quite cold cut out in small biscuits 2
inches in diameter. It should be about 1
inch thick. Arrange these biscuits in a baking dish, sprinkling each layer with bits of
butter and grated cheese. Put in oven and
brown thoroughly. Serve in bake dish.
Mrs. J. F. Minis
Damon Lee Fowler is a culinary historian, food
writer, and author of six cookbooks. He lives in
Savannah, and is the feature food writer for the
Savannah Morning News.
Parmesan Crosses the Atlantic
year to get more details on Parmesan production and to procure a “macaroni” mold.
F o o d F i t for A merica’ s T hird Pre s ident
Jefferson took the oath of office on March 4, 1801 and returned to his
New Jersey Avenue lodgings in the new capitol, Washington, D.C., where
he was temporarily forced to eat boarding house fare. Later in the spring
he moved to the newly built President’s House on Pennsylvania Avenue
and began to host dinners never seen before in America, remarkable for
the variety and quality of wines and foods. Jefferson hired a French maître d’hôtel, house manager, and a French chef. Their jobs were to source
and cook a wide range of local foods as well as those procured abroad. In
1806 the White House received a shipment from Bordeaux France which
featured Parmesan cheese along with olives and olive oil, anchovies, three
kinds of almonds, artichoke hearts, tarragon vinegar, Maille mustard,
seedless raisins, figs, prunes and Bologna sausage.
Jefferson also served macaroni pie at the White House that very well
may have included Parmesan cheese. The first written recipe for macaroni pie seems to come from The Experienced English Housekeeper by Mrs.
Elizabeth Raffald, published in 1769. It called for macaroni to be cooked
and mixed with a béchamel sauce and Cheddar. Then it was sprinkled
with Parmesan cheese and baked to bubbly brown perfection. Jefferson,
a great admirer of ice cream, would have adored the recipe for Parmesan
Cheese Ice Cream that appeared around the same time in The Compleat
Confectione by British cook Hannah Glasse.
Even after leaving office and retiring to Monticello, Jefferson made
Parmesan cheese a permanent fixture on many of his orders shipped
out of the port of Marseilles. And the habit of serving it with macaroni
continued in the recipes that Mary Randolf, Jefferson’s cousin, learned
at Monticello and published in her 1824 guide for the running of a
home, The Virginia Housewife. Parmesan had become a household staple in America.
1
Damon Lee Fowler, editor Dining at Monticello: In Good Taste and Abundance, ©2005 by
Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc. pp .2-3.
Who cuts
the cheese?
Everyone does
it better with
the right
tools.
Actually, Parmigiano Reggiano is not cut; it’s split
like a diamond. Its unique
crystalline structure is
revealed when the wheel is
wedged apart using special
blades. With practice you’ll
cut this cheese in a way
that would make Michelangelo proud! Phone Good
Food Creative 315-4750475 or e-mail: knives@
goodfoodcreative.com
Consorzio ParmigianoReggiano T 011.39.0522.307741
F 011.39.0522.307748
www.parmigiano-reggiano.it
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Editor: Nancy Radke
Copyright © 2011 Consorzio del
Formaggio Parmigiano-Reggiano,
all rights reserved.