[Sca-cooks] Caciocavallo - Saddlebag cheese!

[Elise Fleming]

(snip)
<- two round, flask-shaped cheeses hanging side by side and dried over a
 >sturdy branch. Made traditionally from sheep or cow's milk, it's
 >everywhere in the Greek south of Italy, once Magna Graecia, and indeed
 >is first mentioned in Hippocrates, I believe, around 500BC. Looks good,
 >very decorative, Tastes of nothing much and has a poor texture, sorry.

(more snip_

 >My additions:

 >Washington Irving, when the US ambassador to Spain, rode to Granada 
 >with cheese in his saddlebags in the latter part of the 19th C where 
he >wrote Tales of the Alhambra. Henry IV (1425-1474), older brother of 
 >Isabel the Catholic of Castile rode with cheese and sausage in his 
 >saddle bags along with everyone else in the Middle Ages. This cheese 
 >beginning to make sense. . .
 >Suey

I am confused.  Are you saying that Washington Irving specifically 
carried this Italian cheese in his saddlebags?  Or is there just a 
mention somewhere of him carrying some type of cheese (for his lunch?) 
on his horse?

Was this caciocavallo cheese imported into Spain in the mid-1400s? 
Would it have survived the trip?  Weren't there any Spanish cheeses that 
Henry IV would have taken on horseback?

I'm missing something here.  Taking cheese along on horseback, wrapped 
up in one's saddlebags, would seem to be fairly commonplace for a 
traveler.  But does that mean that it would have to be caciocavallo from 
Italy?

Alys K.
-- 
Elise Fleming
alysk at ix.netcom.com
alyskatharine at gmail.com
http://damealys.medievalcookery.com/
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