Caciocavallo Stagionato di Grotta del Tanagro is a stretched-curd cheese tied, in Regione Campania’s account, to the Tanagro valley and especially to Caggiano and the municipalities that feed that landscape. What draws the eye is not a slogan but a patient sequence: raw milk from evening and morning milking, mixed after filtering, then a long rest that can turn an early sweetness toward sharper, spicier notes.
Rennet is dissolved in lukewarm water and stirred into the filtered milk once the vat has been brought to 38 °C. The curd is then left to settle and drain on the bottom of the vat for about ten minutes. Maturation itself lasts roughly two to three hours, shifting with the temperature of the room—an unhurried pause before the paste is asked to stretch.
Lifted from the whey, the paste is set on a draining table and then spun. Hands work it into the familiar ovoid skeins. Once cooled, the forms go into a 20–25 percent brine for twenty-four to forty-eight hours, a saline bath that firms the rind before any cave air is allowed to take over.
They dry for at least fifteen days, then move into the grotto for a minimum of three months. Aging may run as long as two years. That clock is the practical takeaway: the same cheese can still taste gentle early on, then pick up heat as months accumulate underground—worth remembering if you meet a younger wheel beside one that has lived in the cave.