Provolone is a pasta filata type cheese usually made in a salami or log shape. It is made in other forms such as very large tear drops. When it is made in the shape of a pear with a knob on top it is called Caciocavallo, which translates into, “cheese on a horse.” . There are many kinds and sizes of Caciocavallo cheeses made in Italy. The Sicillian version is called Ragusano and is made in the shape of a curbstone, which weighs 22-35 pounds. When these are stuffed with butter they are called Burino or Manteca. All of these cheeses can be made from raw milk and aged for a minimum of 60 days or longer.
Lipase can be added along with the starter culture to produce a sharp Italian or “picante” flavor in a short amount of time. Italian rennet is traditionally a paste, which contains lipase. Standardized rennet does not have lipase and therefore lipase is needed as a supplement to break down the fat at a faster rate. If lipase is not used, the picante flavor will develop but over a much longer period of time. The difference is approx. 6 months.

For 100 lb. milk:
Heat the raw milk to 90-93° F.
Add starter culture:
DVS culture use 1U (1/4 tsp) EZAL TA062 + 1U EZAL LB100
or bulk culture use 1 lb. Rosell Thermo B

After 1-1 1/2 hours add 9 ml single strength rennet

Measure the curdling point and multiply this times 3 to get the time to wait from adding rennet to cutting the curd, e.g., 12 min. x 3 = 36 min..
Cut the curds into particles the size of corn kernels. Rest the curds for 5 min..

Begin heating, while stirring the curds and whey, steadily to 95-98° F in 15 minutes.
Continue heating to 114-118 F in 30 minutes. Total heating time is 45 min..
Cook at 114-118° F until the curds are springy and firm.

Settle the curds under the whey for 15-30 minutes. Rake curds to the back of the vat and drain off the whey. Keep the curds in a pack, then slice into slabs. Pile the slabs on top of each other until the acidity increases so that they are ready to stretch into shapes.
Do a “stretch test” to determine this. Trim off a few small pieces of curd and immerse them in 170° F water for a few minutes. After kneading them together, you should be able to pull the curd into a shiny string.

After molding the cheeses, put them in cold water to firm up before brining.
Brine in a saturated salt brine at 50-55° F for 2 hours per lb. for cheese under 5 lb., 3 hours per lb. for cheese 5-10 lb., and 4 hours per lb. for 10 lb. and over.
After brining, age as natural rind or in wax at 50-60° F and 85% RH.

Alternative Recipe for Traditional Caciocavallo and Kashkaval

For 100 lb. milk:
Heat the raw milk to 93-94° F.
Add starter culture:
DVS culture use 1/8U (1/32 tsp) EZAL TA062 + 1/8U EZAL LB340
(LB340 has ¼ less volume than TA060)
or use 4 oz. Rosell Thermo B bulk culture
(Use the same amount of starter culture for pasteurized mlk)

Add 8 grams (2 tsp.) lipase powder
After 30 minutes add 9 ml single strength rennet

Measure the curdling point and multiply this times 4 to get the time to wait from adding rennet to cutting the curd, e.g., 15 min. x 4 = 60 min..
Cut the curds into particles the size of corn kernels. Rest the curds for 5 min..

Begin heating, while stirring the curds and whey, steadily to 95-9° F in 10 minutes.
Continue heating to 104-108° F in 20 minutes. Total heating time is 30 min..

Settle the curds under the whey for 5-10 minutes. Rake curds to the back of the vat and drain off the whey. Keep the curds in a pack, then slice into cakes and place in basket forms. Make Ricotta cheese from the whey. Place the baskets of curd in the vat and pour in the hot whey from Ricotta making so that the curd is covered. Let sit for 2 hours until curd is pH 5.6-5.7. Drain off the whey and let the curd sit in the baskets or wrapped in cheesecloth overnight in a cool room. If it is warm in the cheese room the curd can be moved to the cooler overnight to prevent over acidification.

The next morning the curd should be ready to stretch into shapes.
The curd should be pH 5.2-5.3
Do a “stretch test” to determine this. Trim off a few small pieces of curd and immerse them in 170° F water for a few minutes. After kneading them together, you should be able to pull the curd into a shiny string. If the curd is not ready it can be warmed up to renew the bacterial growth and lower the pH.

Follow the procedure for stretching and molding the curds into shapes. Cut the curd cakes into thin strips, place in hot water and, after a few minutes begin pushing the curds together. The water should be 165-170 F. In the Balkans, Kashkaval is made from sheep milk. Because of the higher fat content of the curd the stretch water may need to be even hotter. When the curds are sticking together, roll them and gently knead them together to form a homogeneous mass. Sprinkle in a small amount of salt as you are doing this. When the surface is smooth and shiny, transfer the curd to a form.

After molding, the hot curd is placed into a form and pinched off so as to leave no openings. For Kashkaval, holes are are made in the top of the curd so that air is released. Kashkaval is typically made in a 12 lb. wheel. Caciocavallo cheeses are usually molded into teardrop, bell, pear and gourd shapes; Ragusano (a form of Caciocavallo from Sicily is made in a 30 lb. rectangular shape the size of a curbstone). Caciocavallo cheeses are chilled in cold water to hold their shape. The Ragusano and Kashkaval curd rests in a form until the following day and is turned 3 or 4 times during the afternoon.

Caciocavallo and Ragusano cheeses are brined in a 23-24 % salt (saturated) brine at the rate of 4 hours per pound.

Kashkaval is dry salted over a period of 20 days in the following manner:

1. Wheels are salted on both sides and placed on wooden shelves
2. After 2 days the wheels are wiped dry and salted again and stacked one on top of another. The process is repeated.
3. The process is repeated but the wheels are stacked 3 high during the next 4 days
4. Repeat the process but stack 4 high
5. Repeat the process but stack 5 high
6. The stacks of wheels are left 5 high for 20 more days without additional salting
7. The wheels are now taken from the stacks and cleaned and stacked again
8. This is repeated every week until the aging is complete
   
   The cheese is aged for at least five months with a natural rind in a cool environment: 57-60° F with 80-85% RH.

The Caciocavallo cheeses are cleaned periodically and can be rubbed with olive oil. These cheeses are usually hung from cords in the aging room.
During aging, Kaskkaval is periodically placed on boards in the sun when the temperature is 50-70° F to give it a rich yellow color. One Macedonian cheesemaker did this on the roof of the aging building. Other cheesemakers cleaned the cheese and only placed it in the sun to yellow for a day or two prior to sale.