we're in san diego garganico italy and
today we're going to see how cacho
cavallo cheese is made
kachukavalo is one of the most popular
cheeses here in southern italy and it's
famous for its elongated shape
what we're going to see today is a
special kind of kachokawalo the padolico
kind
which is made with the raw milk of
padolica cattle a rare breed of cattle
that is able to survive
in the harshest conditions that we can
find here
these conditions make their cheese one
of the most expensive in italy
sometimes even more expensive than the
finest or parmesans
let's go find out more
the pedalika cows that make this seaside
cheese scatter all over as they roam
making it hard to tell that you're
actually on a farm meet virginia
one of only a handful of producers
making the cheese we are here to learn
about
he uses the recipe that his grandparents
taught him though the most important
element of this recipe
is location here in san nicandro
garganico
we are only one kilometer from the sea
and a hundred meters above sea level
this is an important detail and was to
know why
does
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produce only three to six liters of milk
a day which is much less than
30 liters an average cow might produce
today we're working with 50 liters
the environment in which the cows feed
gives this milk
a rich earthy flavor the whole cheese
making process
takes 5 hours virginia heats up the milk
to 40 degrees enough to warm it up but
still
keep it raw which is essential to make
this type of cacho cavallo
if the milk were to become too warm it
would scorch and kill off the unique
flavor that the podalika cow's milk
brings to the special cheese he then
adds rennet
and fermented whey from yesterday's
production and after 20 minutes he
starts cutting the curd
he aims for the size of a grain of rice
to do that
he uses this mushroom looking tool which
is called menaturo a word out as you may
have guessed
comes from the local dialect
type
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foreign
rather than slowly cutting the curd to
make cacho cavallo virginia
energetically slashes through it
this breaks it up into the small pieces
he's hoping to achieve
we are used to seeing curd being
extracted and then shipped into cheese
right away
but here it actually rests further with
some of its own warm whey
to allow for more concentrated flavor to
develop
keeping the curd nice and warm will
facilitate its fermentation
while some other cheese makers may use a
steel butt for this process
here virginia uses a maple vat to
ferment the cheese
this also impacts the flavor and the
notes of acidity that tickle your tongue
as you eat
virginia tells us this takes about one
hour but because it's winter we ended up
waiting for three hours instead
the curd is ready to be stretched
virginia takes out a bit away to keep
experiments for tomorrow
he then slices the curd in smaller parts
which will then be kneaded in hot water
in comparison to the stretch curd of
mozzarella this one will be harder
this is due to the waiting time as well
as the size of the curd when it was cut
foreign
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foreign
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[Laughter]
virginia then adds some more water to
the curd
it was shaped into two cheeses each
weighing 2.5 kilos
this process will be done completely by
hand so let's get comfortable
he tells me this water is 100 degrees
yes
celsius and judging by the color of his
hands and smoke around us
idle mvm
is
um
each cheese goes through different
shapes before reaching its final one
virginia has its personal signature
shape too
when virginia is happy with the shape of
the cacho cavallo he places it in cold
water to set the shape and stop the
fermentation
he then adds a rope around the cheese's
heads to tie the pair together
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once paired the two cheeses moved to
bathing brine the time they spend here
depends on weight
every kilo needs 24 hours these two new
entries weigh 2.5 kilos
so they stay here for 60 hours and when
that time is over
their next destination is something
unexpected
oh
over the hook hence the name of the
cheese the tree is actually the only
time the cheeses will see some sunlight
as the pair will spend the rest of their
aging days in caves
the minimum aging is six weeks and the
maximum
two years today virginia has prepared a
six-month-old catria cavallo for us to
taste
a cheese this old is worth forty dollars
a kilo which translates into just over a
hundred dollars a piece
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