Regarding Butter and Whey

I always read the articles in the newsletter with pleasure and in scanning last issue's article by Federica Pozzi, "At Home Among the Others," which I found most interesting, the following sentence jumped out at me: "...the reason Italian butter is so tasteless by comparison is because it is made from whey, the residue left after cheese production uses up the fat, rich part of the milk. In Italy, butter is the last product in the chain..."

This page, from the Assolatte website...[shows that] it is ricotta which is produced from whey, even if there is no true regulation attached to this product. All this not to highlight the error, which I believe was made in good faith, but in defense of Italian butter production.

—Elisabetta Venturini

Your points are well made, and provide us with the opportunity to clarify the intent behind the article. Whey is in fact one of the ingredients used in butter production with, of course, higher-fat milk also used. (The use of whey has been allowed since the passing of a 1983 law. Ricotta is also produced using whey and the addition of milk and/or cream, to add richness, although the production process is quite different.)

In the article, Federica chose to illustrate her narrative about otherness with a parenthetical comment about the relatively lower value butter is perceived to have in Italy versus Ireland, and how this difference plays out in her classmates' reflection of Federica's own food culture. It was in no way intended to denigrate the quality of Italian food products.

Another P for Parma

I have an addition to Sophie Esser's passion for "The Ps of Parma": Panil. I work with Shelton Brothers Importers in the U.S., a craft beer importer, and our one and only Italian brewery is Birrificio Torrechiara. Their beer is Panil. They make a beautiful Sour Red (a style that originated in Flanders, but the Panil version is one of the most authentic out there today). It's a lovely deep reddish brown, and I couldn't help but think what a nice pairing it would make with the passion (and the pheasant) in Sophie's story.

—Lauren Shepard

Thank you for sharing this suggestion to the P list. Indeed, Torrechiara, just a short drive south of Parma, has been a stop for many Panil-seeking UNISG masters. The brewery is a former winery, and some of their grape knowledge shows up in some of their more experimental products—a barrel-aged "barriquée" beer and another made with crushed grapes added to the wort during fermentation.