A semi-hard stretched-curd cow's-milk cheese from southern Italy, named for the Sila plateau in Calabria, its historic heartland. The curd is ripened until acidic, then worked and spun in hot water and shaped by hand into a gourd or teardrop with a small head, tied with cord and hung in pairs over a beam to age — the way of hanging that gives the family its name, cacio a cavallo, cheese 'on horseback'. Mellow and sweet when young, sharper and more piquant with age, it is eaten sliced as a table cheese, grated when mature, or grilled until it oozes.
Caciocavallo Silano is a documented traditional cheese of the Italian Mezzogiorno, granted Protected Designation of Origin (DOP) status by the European Union under EC Regulation 1263/96 of 2 July 1996. Its delimited production zone spans five southern regions — Calabria, Basilicata, Campania, Molise and Puglia — with the Sila plateau of Calabria regarded as the historic heart and the source of the 'Silano' name. The cheese belongs to the old southern Italian tradition of pasta filata, stretched-curd cheeses, a technique recorded in the region since antiquity, and was historically made from the milk of hardy Podolica cattle, though today it is produced from whole cow's milk more broadly. The name caciocavallo is generally explained by the way the finished cheeses are tied in pairs and hung astride a horizontal pole to age — cacio a cavallo, cheese 'on horseback' — rather than by any link to horse's milk.
Pale straw-yellow, firm and smooth, with the slight springy pull of a stretched-curd paste. Young, it is mild, milky and faintly sweet, melting readily on the tongue; as it ages it firms up, dries and turns markedly sharper and more piquant, with a savoury depth good for grating. The rind is thin and smooth. Grilled or pan-fried, it softens into a stretchy, golden-crusted ooze, salty and toasty at the edges — the form in which Calabrians most love to eat it hot.
Caciocavallo is a pasta filata, or stretched-curd, cheese, and that step is what defines it. The milk is set with rennet, and the cut curd is then left to ripen until lactic-acid bacteria drop its pH into a narrow window where the casein proteins will stretch. Bathed in hot water at that point, the acidified curd becomes plastic and is pulled and folded until its proteins align into smooth, elastic, layered fibres — the same spinning that gives mozzarella and provolone their pull. The mass is then shaped by hand into the characteristic gourd with a pinched head, brine-salted, and hung in pairs to dry and age. During aging, enzymes from the rennet and the bacterial cultures slowly break down proteins and fats (proteolysis and lipolysis), which is why a young, mild, sweet cheese gradually develops a firmer body and a sharp, piquant, deeply savoury flavour. When it is grilled, the aligned protein fibres soften and flow while the surface browns through the Maillard reaction, giving the molten, stringy, crusted result.
Variations
Caciocavallo is sold at different ages: young and semi-soft as a table and melting cheese, or aged (stagionato) and firm for grating and long keeping, with flavour climbing from sweet and mild to dry and piquant. A celebrated way to serve it is caciocavallo impiccato, 'hanged' caciocavallo — a piece suspended over embers or flame and scraped onto bread as it melts — and it is also simply grilled or pan-fried in slices. Beyond the DOP Silano made from cow's milk, the wider caciocavallo family across the south includes versions from Podolica cattle and smoked types, and the cheese turns up melted over polenta, in baked pasta and on grilled bread.
On the Palate
Where Caciocavallo Silano sits in the Italian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 12How it's made
5 steps · 1 hour 15 min active + 45 min waiting
- 135 min
Warm whole cow's milk to about 37°C and set it with rennet until a firm curd forms. Cut the curd into small granules and let them settle.
- 240 min
Leave the curd to ripen for several hours, keeping it warm, until its acidity rises to the point where a test piece pulled in hot water stretches into smooth strands rather than tearing.
Watch outRipen the curd until a test piece stretches smooth in hot water instead of tearing — this acidity window is the whole make-or-break; too soon it snaps, too late it goes grainy.
- 315 min
Cut the ripened curd into pieces, cover with hot water (around 80 to 90°C) and work it with a paddle, pulling and folding the softened curd until it is glossy, elastic and smooth.
Watch outWork the curd in 80–90°C water, pulling and folding, until glossy and elastic — this stretching aligns the proteins into the smooth layered pull.
- 410 min
Take off a portion, stretch and fold it on itself, and shape it by hand into the gourd form, pinching out the small head at the top; firm the surface in cold water.
- 515 min
Salt the shaped cheeses in brine for several hours, then tie them in pairs with cord and hang them astride a pole in a cool, airy place to dry and age — a few days for a young cheese, months for a sharp aged one.
Archive tool suggestions — not reviewed
These legacy suggestions have not been evidence-reviewed and are not presented as required tools.
