Casket or Caciocavallo "Cofanaro"
Product included in the national list of traditional agri-food products (PAT)
PAT type: Cheeses
Production area: Municipality of Custonaci, S. Vito, Castellammare, Calatafimi.
Technical data sheet of the traditional agri-food product (PAT)
Area of production: Municipality of Custonaci, S. Vito, Castellammare, Calatafimi.
Brief description of the product: Stretched curd cheese made with 20-30% Valle del Belice sheep's milk and 70-80% Cinisara cow's milk, its size varies from 2 to 10 kg.
Description of the processing and maturing methods: The sheep's and cow's milk comes from one or two milkings at a temperature of about 36 ° C and is coagulated in wooden vats with the help of lamb's rennet in paste 80 gr. per 100 liters of milk, after about 30-40 minutes the curd is broken with the help of a wooden "patella" tool into small fragments as large as grains of rice, then the cheese mass is placed in the hot pan for about four hours and afterwards it is placed to dry astride chestnut beams. The next day it is cut into slices and spun by dipping it inside a wooden tub (piddiaturi) in the hot sheet. After spinning with a technique that has been handed down for centuries (accupatina), the cheesy mass takes the shape of an ovoid ball and then is placed in a shape (board) where it acquires the shape of a parallelepiped. The next day it is placed in saturated brine for a variable period depending on the size of 12 hours per kg. It can be eaten fresh or seasoned.
Specific materials and equipment used for preparation and conditioning: Wooden vat, wooden stick (patella), wooden tub (piddiaturi), cane trellis (cannara), rush baskets, wooden boards, tinned copper or steel boiler.
Description of the processing, storage and maturing rooms: Processing and storage rooms must be healthy and hygienically acceptable. The cheese is matured in cool and ventilated cellars.
Elements proving that the methodologies have been practiced in a homogeneous way and according to traditional rules for a period of not less than 25 years: The casket is a cheese that has deep roots in the production area. The name derives from Monte Cofano located in the territory of Custonaci (TP) and according to Samuel Butler dates back to the early 500s.
Source Pat Cards: Sicily Region
Card insertion: Ignazio Caloggero
Information contributions: Web, Region of Sicily
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