Caciocavallo cheese is one of the cornerstones of the cheese-making tradition of southern Italy, a concentrate of aromas and flavors that enrich our tables with a unique and unmistakable taste thanks to the value of a millenary history. Hippocrates already spoke about it around 500 BC discussing the art of making cheese in the Greek colonies on the Peninsula. Famous Latin authors, such as Pliny, defined this cheese as “most delicate food”.
Among the typical Italian stretched-curd cheeses, Caciocavallo is represented by a good number of products. Most of them come from territories that constituted Magna Graecia. Besides the PDO Silano and Ragusano, the Palermitan caciocavallo (or Godrano) and the podolic cheeses, made from the milk of the podolic cow, should also be mentioned. Among the latter, the best known are the varieties from Gargano, Lucanian, and Campanian regions.
In the production of Caciocavallo, the cheesemaker’s manual skill is fundamental, molding the dough with boiling water to obtain the classic oblong shape characterized by the typical “head”. After being cooled and immersed in brine for a variable period, the cheeses are tied and hung for the aging phase.
