Facts About Caciocavallo
Caciocavallo is a type of stretched-cured cheese made out of sheep's or cow's milk. It is produced throughout Southern Italy, particularly in the Apennine Mountains and in the Gargano peninsula. Shaped like a teardrop, it is similar in taste to the aged Southern Italian Provolone cheese, with a hard edible rind.
Etymology
The Italian name of the cheese caciocavallo literally means "horse cheese" and it is generally thought that the name derives 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 500 BC by Hippocrates, 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 tradizionale (traditional regional food product) like Caciocavallo podolico (produced using only milk from the Podolica cattle breed), Caciocavallo di Castelfranco (from Miscano valley in the Apennines) or Caciocavallo di Godrano (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 Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, and Apulia, and gained protected geographical status in 1993.
In other languages
Albanian: Kaçkavall; Bulgarian and Macedonian Кашкавал; Romanian: Caşcaval; Serbian: Качкаваљ/Kačkavalj; Sicilian: Caciucavaddu; Turkish: Kaşkaval/Kaşar; Hebrew: קשקבל/Kashkaval; Greek: Κασκαβάλι/Kaskavali, Κασέρι/Kaseri; Arabic: Kashkawane (Arabic: قشقوان).
Each of these local speciality cheeses is different from both Caciocavallo Silano and each other.
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