After Gioia del Colle mozzarella another cheese from Southern Italy aspires to obtain the prestigious recognition, is the caciocavallo podolico, typical cheese of the South that brings back to the ancient tradition of transhumance and to a dairy tradition common to Basilicata, Calabria, Campania and Puglia.
The farmers' associations of these four regions, with the support of the Department of Agri-Food Quality (Dqa), met in Potenza to share a process that could lead to the recognition of the protected designation of origin for this particular type of cheese.
The demand for caciocavallo podolico follows the one advanced for the “Spressa delle Giudicarie”, low-fat table cheese from western Trentino and part of the province of Brescia, one of the oldest cheeses of the Alpine mountains which was once produced in an artisanal way on the farms, before transferring the cows to the mountain pastures, Spressa was in fact essentially a product "residual", the farmers and cheesemakers tried to obtain the greatest possible quantity of butter from the milk, well paid for by the local market. What remained was used for the production of a poor cheese, the consumption of which was reserved almost exclusively for the farmer's family. The name "Spressa" derives from the dialect word "spress", i.e. the squeezed mass.
Caciocavallo podolico – as written in a note from the Ara (Regional Breeders Associations) of Basilicata – “is a renowned dairy excellence that it can represent the point from which to restart the entire livestock sector of the South, above all in the grazing livestock sector”.
It is a stretched curd cheese made from bovine milk, coming from exclusively Podolica breed cows and in any case from wild or semi-wild herds, with a diet based mainly on pasture.
The processing involves exclusively local bovine milk, natural bovine or goat rennet, salt. The raw milk is heated up to 36°37° C then the rennet is added followed by the breaking of the curd which is then left to drain on large linen cloths awaiting maturation and acidification. The curd is then cut by hand with steel knives and the boiling whey is added. At this point the spinning takes place by hand with the aid of wooden ladles. The final stages are hand forming, salting in brine, binding and seasoning.
The PDO request for this cheese of ancient origins aims to enhance the territory and ensure greater earning potential for the breeders themselves, with particular regard to young people who can be stimulated to find employment in dairy activities conceived as a proactive and innovative environment, which it is believed can be taken as a model of a modus operandi to be replicated for other projects as well.
This path is, among other things, in line with the new market demands, the product well it satisfies the animal welfare criteria, the integration with forms of eco-sustainable tourism, the reference to the most ancient agro-pastoral traditions such as transhumance.
In this regard, it should be noted that a group of scholars from the University of Milan has demonstrated, as part of the Strength2Food project, that geographical indication products (PDO and PGI) act as a "driving force" for exports of food products from the same type, even if not protected by the quality mark.
As mentioned the milk comes from cows of the Podolian breed, a breed which according to a widely accredited version was imported into Italy in ancient times from the steppes of Podolia (in the Ukraine), by the Huns in 452 AD or by the Romans, who also imported it to Crete.
According to other sources, however, they have always populated the Italian peninsula
However the breed, although not threatened with extinction, has undergone a consistent decline, due to the mechanization of agriculture which has made the use of shooting obsolete, and to urbanization and the exodus from rural/mountainous areas. From an estimated size of 630.000 specimens in the 1983 Ethnographic Atlas of cattle bred in Italy, the population of Podolica has experienced, according to FAO data from 2002, a decrease of 80%.
In fact, the Podolian breed is the result of a millennial process of adaptation to the environments of the southern areas of the country, to its woods, its scrubs. The number of animals in this area of the Mediterranean is approximately 130.000, present, in particular, in Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania and Puglia.
The breed is bred for the production of meat and milk, and for resistance to cold because it is a breed that is always in the wild, from its birth until its death. It is grazed during the winter in the woods at low altitudes and the rest of the year in the mountains from 800 meters upwards. The transhumance of cattle moves the specimens from one place to another. Each bovine is given a name and a bell is hung around its neck to indicate its presence even from a distance.
The Podolian cow has been included among the meat breeds. The interest in the Podolian cattle has gradually grown up to the creation of the genealogical book. In 1988 there was the first national show of cattle registered in the herd book of the Podolica breed and in 1996 the Podolica genetic center of the National Association of Beef Cattle Breeders (ANABIC) was inaugurated in Laurenzana (Potenza). The center has improved the genetics of the breed to the point where nearly more than 500 bull bulls have been enrolled for breeding stock for genetics. The animals in Italy are around 130.000.
The Podolica has to graze practically all year round, it cannot stand the confined spaces of stables – its meat is savory and rich in vitamins and mineral salts. The high carotene content gives the fat a slightly yellowish colour: precisely for this reason and for the consistency of the meat, more tenacious (if not properly matured) than that of other cereal-fed cattle, it is not appreciated as it deserves. Its growth rates are also slower than those found in other intensively bred breeds.
The quantity of milk produced in short periods of the year is around 15 kg per day with a fat content of 4,50% and protein of 3,60%. The milk is transformed into very fine stretched curd cheeses (such as Caciocavallo podolico as it gives the product organoleptic qualities that are particularly appreciated by the consumer. The meat is of good quality, it has a typical sapidity of this breed and a yellowish fat which gives the cuts have a particular and aromatic melting due to the essences contained in the fodder with which the fattening calves are fed.The marbling fat is sporadic.
