Caciocavallo
Encyclopedia
Caciocavallo is a type of stretched-curd
cheese
made out of sheep
's or cow's milk. It is produced throughout Southern Italy, especially mostly on the Apennine Mountains
. Shaped like a tear-drop, it is similar in taste to the aged Southern Italian Provolone
cheese, with a hard edible rind.
, emphasising the "Greeks' cleverness in making cheese".
Types of cheese with names similar to "caciocavallo" are common throughout the Balkans and Southern Italy.
In Sicily, the Ragusano DOP, known locally as "caciocavallo ragusano" had to drop the denomination "caciocavallo" in order to get DOP status.
(traditional regional food product) like Caciocavallo podolico (produced using only milk from the Podolica cattle breed) or Caciocavallo di Godrano
(often called caciocavallo Palermitano).
, Calabria
, Campania
, Molise
and Puglia and has gained Protected Geographical Status
status in 1993.
and Macedonian
Кашкавал; ; ; ; ; )
Arabic: Kashkawane (Arabic: قشقوان).
Each of these local speciality cheeses is different from both Caciocavallo Silano and each other.
Pasta filata
Pasta filata is a technique in the manufacture of a family of Italian cheeses also known in English as stretched-curd, pulled-curd, and plastic-curd cheeses.The cheese-making begins in the normal way...
cheese
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
made out of sheep
Sheep milk
Sheep's milk is the milk of domestic sheep. Though not widely drunk in any modern culture, sheep's milk is commonly used to make cultured dairy products. Well-known cheeses made from sheep milk include the Feta of Greece, Roquefort of France, Manchego from Spain, the Pecorino Romano , the Pecorino...
's or cow's milk. It is produced throughout Southern Italy, especially mostly on the Apennine Mountains
Apennine mountains
The Apennines or Apennine Mountains or Greek oros but just as often used alone as a noun. The ancient Greeks and Romans typically but not always used "mountain" in the singular to mean one or a range; thus, "the Apennine mountain" refers to the entire chain and is translated "the Apennine...
. Shaped like a tear-drop, it is similar in taste to the aged Southern Italian Provolone
Provolone
Provolone is an Italian cheese that originated in Southern Italy, where it is still produced in various shapes as in 10 to 15 cm long pear, sausage, or cone shapes. A variant of Provolone is also produced in North America and Japan...
cheese, with a hard edible rind.
Etymology
The Italian name of the cheese caciocavallo means "Cheese on horseback" and it is thought that derive the name from the fact that two cheese forms are always bound together with rope and then left to mature by placing them 'a cavallo', i.e. straddling, upon a horizontal stick or branch.History
Apparently caciocavallo was mentioned the first time around 500BC by HippocratesHippocrates
Hippocrates of Cos or Hippokrates of Kos was an ancient Greek physician of the Age of Pericles , and is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine...
, emphasising the "Greeks' cleverness in making cheese".
Types of cheese with names similar to "caciocavallo" are common throughout the Balkans and Southern Italy.
In Sicily, the Ragusano DOP, known locally as "caciocavallo ragusano" had to drop the denomination "caciocavallo" in order to get DOP status.
Types
Many different types of caciocavallo exist in Italy and several are recognized as Prodotto agroalimentare tradizionaleProdotto agroalimentare tradizionale
Prodotto agroalimentare tradizionale , in Italy, is a list of traditional regional food products similar to the Protected Geographical Status...
(traditional regional food product) like Caciocavallo podolico (produced using only milk from the Podolica cattle breed) or Caciocavallo di Godrano
Godrano
Godrano is a comune in the Province of Palermo in the Italian region Sicily, located about 25 km south of Palermo. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 1,164 and an area of 38.9 km²....
(often called caciocavallo Palermitano).
Protected Geographical Status (PDO)
Caciocavallo Silano is made with cow’s milk in designated areas of Southern Italy, in the regions of BasilicataBasilicata
Basilicata , also known as Lucania, is a region in the south of Italy, bordering on Campania to the west, Apulia to the north and east, and Calabria to the south, having one short southwestern coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea between Campania in the northwest and Calabria in the southwest, and a...
, Calabria
Calabria
Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....
, Campania
Campania
Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...
, Molise
Molise
Molise is a region of Southern Italy, the second smallest of the regions. It was formerly part of the region of Abruzzi e Molise and now a separate entity...
and Puglia and has gained Protected Geographical Status
Protected Geographical Status
Protected Geographical Status is a legal framework defined in European Union law to protect the names of regional foods. Protected Designation of Origin , Protected Geographical Indication and Traditional Speciality Guaranteed are distinct regimes of geographical indications within the framework...
status in 1993.
In other languages
; BulgarianBulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
and Macedonian
Macedonian language
Macedonian is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora...
Кашкавал; ; ; ; ; )
Arabic: Kashkawane (Arabic: قشقوان).
Each of these local speciality cheeses is different from both Caciocavallo Silano and each other.