Caciocavallo Podolico is the variety of caciocavallo cheese produced exclusively with the milk of podolic cows, that is, raised in the wild and only at certain times of the year. This bovine breed is bred in Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise and Puglia.
This cheese is the symbol of the cheese-making tradition of Southern Italy, a typical product of the most traditional and authentic Basilicata.
Caciocavallo Podolico is a hard cheese, aged for many years (even five or six years) which gives it a series of organoleptic qualities: complex aromas, of pastureland and Mediterranean scrub, as well as a unique aftertaste.
It has a rounded shape like a scarmorza, with a raffia or rush head and binding. The rind, in the initial phase of ripening, is smooth, thin and straw yellow in colour. With time it tends to become harder and darken.
The taste, initially sweet, buttery and delicate, becomes spicy, characteristic and aromatic over time thanks to the diet, based on wild herbs, of the podolic cows in the wild.
For the purposes of recognition as a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) product, Caciocavallo Podolico has been aggregated to Caciocavallo Silano recognised with the Reg. EC No. 1263/96, pursuant to Reg. EEC No. 1107/96 of 12 June 1996; therefore this provision has unified the different varieties under a single type of cheese.
