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  • - Hi, guys. This is Claudia, and today I'm gonna

  • take you to see how Gorgonzola cheese is made in Italy.

  • I'm in Trecate in the Piedmont region,

  • which is one of the only two Italian regions

  • together with Lombardy where this cheese can be made,

  • and this is one of the only 29 dairies

  • in the world that can produce this cheese.

  • The Gorgonzola industry is worth over $800 million.

  • Almost 5 million wheels are produced each year,

  • and production is confined to this small area only.

  • Gorgonzola cheese has a centuries-old history,

  • and it is still done using the same

  • ingredients and techniques that it was decades ago.

  • Even machines like this one used to stir the curd are

  • designed to recreate human movements as gently as possible.

  • Its beautiful marbled interior is given

  • by Penicillium roqueforti, a fungus that

  • is used to ripen the cheese.

  • And this is why, in fact, blue cheese is called so.

  • - Claudia: Gorgonzola cheese is made with unskimmed

  • pasteurized cow's milk, and it can either be

  • mild and creamy or hard and pungent

  • depending on how long it is left to age.

  • The two kinds are easily distinguishable by

  • the color of their veins:

  • blue in the creamy and green in the pungent.

  • Claudia: Penicillium roqueforti, the fungus, is added

  • to milk at the very beginning of the production process

  • in a big cauldron together with enzymes, rennet, and yeasts.

  • In about 20 minutes, milk becomes curd

  • and can be transferred into molds.

  • Each wheel is marked with the dairy's identification number.

  • You can see number 60 here,

  • that's Caseificio Si Invernizzi we visited.

  • Here, between 450 and 500 Gorgonzola

  • wheels are made every day.

  • To help the curd settle, wheels are turned four times

  • then left to rest overnight.

  • Then, they are salted a couple of times.

  • At this stage, they weigh about 18 kilos,

  • that's 40 pounds, but this number will drop

  • to 12 kilos, 26 pounds, at the end

  • of the aging process as excess whey is released.

  • The salting rooms are warm and humid.

  • This is also to favor the activity

  • of yeasts inside the cheese.

  • Mild Gorgonzola wheels stay for three days

  • and hard Gorgonzola for five.

  • Then, they are moved again into a cold room

  • where they're punctured 100 times on each side.

  • This is to allow oxygen into the cheese

  • for it to grow its signature blue veins.

  • All Gorgonzolas at Caseificio Si Invernizzi are

  • punctured with a machine, but some other

  • in-house cheeses are still punctured by hand.

  • After this step, the cheese is left to age.

  • It takes two months for the blue creamy Gorgonzola

  • and three months for the green pungent one.

  • The color difference is pretty evident,

  • but do they really taste different?

  • The dairy set up a little cheese tasting

  • so that we could try them both.

  • That's amazing, my God. It almost doesn't feel

  • like you're biting

  • into cheese. It just melts in your mouth.

  • Oh, wow, they are so different. It's crazy. You know?

  • I mean, you can tell from the texture

  • that this is harder and this is creamier, but

  • this is much, much stronger. It has a stronger bite.

  • After trying Gorgonzola on its own,

  • in-house chef Gianpiero Cravero

  • wanted to show me how versatile the cheese is,

  • so he cooked some squid ink spaghetti with both cheeses.

  • - Your pasta.

  • - Mmmm. Wow. The cheese tastes very strong,

  • but I think the combination with the squid ink

  • is great. I mean, color-wise of course it's amazing

  • because black and white, they're like opposites, right?

  • So you can really see the cheese in there

  • and its sort of creamy texture on the pasta.

  • Gorgonzola cheese is protected by the European Union

  • by the Protected Designation of Origin Scheme.

  • This means that any cheese labeled "Gorgonzola"

  • must meet a particular set of standards

  • and is subject to quality checks.

  • It's also wrapped in a signature aluminum foil.

- Hi, guys. This is Claudia, and today I'm gonna

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