🧀 Caciocavallo

Caciocavallo is a stretched-curd (pasta filata) cheese from cow's milk with very old roots, widespread across southern Italy in many local versions. ⁴ The EU protects the variety Caciocavallo Silano as a PDO, and regions list others as traditional products. ¹³

Caciocavallo Silano is a semi-hard cheese made only from raw cow's milk, which may be thermised at 58 °C for 30 seconds. The milk is coagulated at 36–38 °C with calf or kid rennet paste; natural whey starter may be used. The curd ripens for about 4 to 10 hours or more until it can be stretched, then it is stretched in near-boiling water, kneaded by hand into an ovoid, cooled in water and salted in brine for at least 6 hours. ¹

The cheeses are tied in pairs and hung over wooden or steel rods to mature, and the name comes from this way of maturing, "straddled" over a support. ¹ The rind is thin, smooth and straw yellow; the paste is compact, with very small holes. Fat in dry matter is at least 38 %. The minimum maturation is 30 days; 4 months allows the label EXTRA and 9 months GRAN RISERVA. The milk comes from municipalities in Calabria, Campania, Molise, Apulia and Basilicata. ¹

Campania lists Caciocavallo Podolico as a traditional product: milk comes only from Podolica cattle, raised free-range or semi-free-range mainly on pasture. It weighs about 1–2 kg and matures from 15 days to over 6 months. ³ It is sweet with medium salt, gaining some pungency and herbal, hay-like aromas with age, and is traditionally eaten at the end of a meal, plain or with a spicy preserve. ⁴

Why it matters to you. Age changes the cheese: young is mild, ripe is pungent, so read the label. Only "Caciocavallo Silano" with the PDO mark guarantees this specification; plain "caciocavallo" is not bound by it. ¹