| Caciocavallo | |
|---|---|
 Whole cheese and cut into pieces | |
| Country of origin | Italy |
| Source of milk | Sheep,cow |
| Certification | PDO (caciocavallo silano) |
 Related media on Commons | |
Caciocavallo (Italian:[ˌkatʃokaˈvallo]) is a type ofpasta filata ('stretched-curd')cheese made out ofsheep's orcow's milk. It is produced throughoutsouthern Italy, particularly in theApennine Mountains and in theGargano peninsula. Shaped like a teardrop, it is similar in taste to the aged southern Italianprovolone cheese, with a hard edible rind.
The Italian name of the cheesecaciocavallo 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 thema cavallo, i.e. straddling, upon a horizontal stick or branch.[1]
A sort ofcaciocavallo was first mentioned around 500 BCE byHippocrates, emphasising the "Greeks' cleverness in making cheese".[2]Columella in his classic treatise on agriculture,De re rustica (35–45 CE), described precisely the methods used in its preparation, making it one of the oldest known cheeses in the world.[3] Types of cheese with names similar tocaciocavallo are common throughout the Balkans and southern Italy.In Sicily, the Ragusano DOP, known locally ascaciocavallo ragusano had to drop the denomination "caciocavallo" in order to get DOP status.[4]
Many different types ofcaciocavallo exist in Italy, and several are recognised asprodotti agroalimentari tradizionali (PAT), such ascaciocavallo podolico (produced using only milk from the Podolica cattle breed),caciocavallo diCastelfranco (from Miscano Valley in theApennines) orcaciocavallo diGodrano (often calledcaciocavallo palermitano).
Caciocavallo silano is made with cow's milk in designated areas of southern Italy, in the regions ofBasilicata,Calabria,Campania,Molise andApulia, and gainedprotected geographical status in 1993.[5]
Albanian:kaçkavall ;
Bosnian:kačkavalj ;
Bulgarian:кашкавал,kashkaval ;
Romanian:cașcaval ;
Serbian:качкаваљ/kačkavalj ;
Macedonian:кашкавал ;
Sicilian:caciucavaddu ;
Turkish:kaşkaval /kaşar ;
Hebrew:קשקבל,kashkaval ;
Greek:κασκαβάλι,kaskavali ,κασέρι,kaseri ;
Arabic:قشقوان,kashkawane.
Japanese:カチョカバロkachokabaro.
Although the names are similar, each of these local speciality cheeses is different from bothcaciocavallo silano and each other.
Media related toCaciocavallo at Wikimedia Commons
