“the caciocavallo of a few years ago was different, softer, not as dry, and more aromatic… it was much tastier”
Why? What has changed over the years?
Not the pasture; neither the breed of the cows… even though the modicana breed is increasingly rare.
Has the cheese producer forgotten how to make caciocavallo? No he hasn’t.
The seasoning method has simply changed.
Once the seasoning was undertaken in caves or in maizè, old houses in the centre of Ragusa, with thick walls, located in little streets where the sun never reached.
The only refrigeration system was to open the tiny openings during the evening and close them during the day.
Walking around the town centre you could feel the intense aroma of the strung caciocavallo seasoning . (“cunciri”).
Then came the refrigeration systems, the concrete warehouses, fridge units and the end of the old taste and flavour.
We tried to obtain that flavour, not only for the taste, but also for tradition: my wife’s family until her grandfather’s time had always seasoned and traded in caciocavallo; instead my family till the time of my grandfather had always produced caciocavallo.
It has been very difficult to combine the traditional ways of the processing of the caciocavallo and the difficulties of working in a stone cave with tufo walls within the Europeans regulations regarding food processing, but when we taste our products we think that it was worth the effort.
Try them and tell us if we have succeeded.
