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Cheese from Italy, Sicily, province of Palermo

Caciocavallo palermitanoCascavallu

Caciocavallo palermitano is a large, brick-shaped pasta filata cheese of 8–12 kg made from raw milk of Cinisara cows. No starter is added; lactic bacteria come from the biofilm of the wooden vat (tina) and the other wooden tools. The curd cooks under hot scotta for about four hours, is pressed and hung overnight, then stretched, pressed into a rectangular wooden form and brined for up to 12 days.

Fully documentedCheese43 daysSicily traditional food product (PAT), listed by D.M. 16 February 2018Family: Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo fixed amounts. The regional sheet sets the setting temperature, the cooking time, the brine time and the ageing.
Raw whole cow milkOne warm milking of Cinisara cows in the ONAF sheet[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Lamb or kid rennet paste[pat-sheet]
ScottaThe whey left in the vat after cheese or ricotta making, used hot to cook and to stretch the curd[pat-sheet][onaf-sheet]
Saturated brine[pat-sheet]
Starternone added; natural microflora from the wooden vat and tools

Total time across the recorded steps: 43 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countS. thermophilusL. delbrueckiiPediococcus acidilacticiLacticaseibacillus casei35 °C

What changes: Lamb or kid rennet goes into raw milk in the wooden tina, whose biofilm seeds it with bacteria

Step 1 of 8
Set the milk in the wooden tina
Time
Not documented
Temperature
35 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
S. thermophilus
L. delbrueckii
Pediococcus acidilactici
Lacticaseibacillus casei

Fresh warm milk is filtered into the wooden tina with lamb or kid rennet paste. The tina's biofilm seeds the milk with lactic bacteria.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Caciocavallo palermitano is a large, brick-shaped pasta filata cheese of 8–12 kg made from raw milk of Cinisara cows. No starter is added; lactic bacteria come from the biofilm of the wooden vat (tina) and the other wooden tools. The curd cooks under hot scotta for about four hours, is pressed and hung overnight, then stretched, pressed into a rectangular wooden form and brined for up to 12 days. Made in 8 steps over 43 days. The longest step, ripen, takes at least 30 days (Regione Siciliana 2018). Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii and Pediococcus acidilactici and Lacticaseibacillus casei do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 30 daysReported[pat-sheet]Ripen
Temperature35 °CReported[pat-sheet]Set the milk in the wooden tina

What makes this one different

It is shaped as a long block, not an oval with a head, and made in a wooden vat with wooden tools, whose biofilm is the starter. The curd is cooked under scotta, pressed on a cane rack and hung overnight before it is stretched.

Rind
Clean, smooth, sharp edges; straw to amber or brown, up to about 3 mm
Size
8–12 kg; square-section block, sides 12–18 cm, length 30–60 cm

Related ferments

Variants

  • Semistagionato1–4 months; paste still elastic, eaten as a table cheese.
  • StagionatoOver 4 months; hard, tough and piquant, grated.

Safety

Made from raw milk with no added starter; the wooden vat's lactic bacteria do the acidifying. The cheese is brined in saturated brine and ripened at least one month.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The PAT sheet cites Carmelo Trasselli for a Palermo price list (calmiere) of March 1412 that already names this cheese separately from cow and sheep cacio. It was served at the tables of nuns and nobles and used as payment in leases.

  1. [pat-sheet] Regione Siciliana, Prodotti Agroalimentari Tradizionali (2018, D.M. 16 febbraio 2018), Caciocavallo ("Cascavallu") Palermitano (copy hosted by ONAF)gov
  2. [digrigoli2015] Di Grigoli A., Francesca N., Gaglio R. et al. 2015, The influence of the wooden equipment employed for cheese manufacture on the characteristics of a traditional stretched cheese during ripening, Food Microbiology 46, 81–91 (abstract)paper
  3. [guarrasi2017] Guarrasi V., Sannino C., Moschetti M. et al. 2017, The individual contribution of starter and non-starter lactic acid bacteria to the volatile organic compound composition of Caciocavallo Palermitano cheese, International Journal of Food Microbiology 259, 35–42 (abstract)paper
  4. [onaf-sheet] ONAF (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Formaggi), Caciocavallo palermitano cheese sheetweb