When I started making cheese 15 years ago, it was not common for women to be in the production area of Casa Ficio. So, when I first started making trachea, it was tough. One day, I was working with Rafael, a cheese-making friend, and I took a video of him. He makes amazing cheeses! I spent that night watching the video over and over again, working with a piece of rope until I was finally able to get it down. The next day, when I came back to work, it became time to do trachea, and I was able to show off my technique.

Raphael walked across to me and said, "Casada, you're a cheese maker!" It was a really cool moment. These are all the finished fresh pasta filata cheeses. Now, I'm going to show you how to make aged pasta filata cheeses.

The first thing I'm going to do is make a salamoya or salt brine. To make a fully saturated salt brine, I need three pounds of salt for every five gallons of water. For aged cheeses, we're going to be putting those in the cave and so I need to make sure that the salt is on the outside of the cheese to preserve the cheese properly for aging.

Now, I'm going to make provolo, which is just a small format of provolone. Provolone is a cheese that you would typically see in the deep south. This is a cheese that would be aged for three to six weeks typically and eaten quite young. The only difference in the stretching technique of aged cheeses is once I reach the waterfall stretch, I want to vigorously work the cheese to remove as much moisture and butter fat as possible. To work out the moisture from the cheese, I'm going to stretch the cheese into long ropes and then fold it over on itself at different points in the process.

My hands actually tell me when the cheese is ready. I'll start to feel it getting firmer and the curd starts to feel a little drier. In this case, I'll be making a log. One of the most important techniques of being a good pasta filata cheese maker is knowing that you do not stretch the cheese; it stretches itself in this case, we're letting gravity do the hard work. I'm gently holding the cheese from the top and I'm letting the cheese stretch under its own weight to allow a good seal at the bottom. The cheese will elongate into a teardrop shape again. I am just the guide here; the cheese is melding together, forming the seal on its own.

Once I find that closure, I remove the excess cheese by breaking it apart and place it in the cold water to ensure the seal stays closed. Now, I'm going to make kacho cavallo, literally translated horse cheese, because when it's bound together and aged in pairs, it looks like the saddlebags of a horse. Katja cavallo is a cheese that typically comes from southern Italy. This is about five pounds of curd; kacho cavallo is typically a larger cheese than provola.

The technique for making kocha kovalo is very similar to the purita latte in this case, I'll be making a large ball. The key is I just want to make sure that it is closed on the bottom. I'll use the remainder of the curds to make scamorza. Skamortza is typically smaller than provola or cacho cavallo; it's a cheese that you would most often find in the regions in and around Naples and will often be smoked. These cheeses are very young and very mild in flavor. Italians prefer to smoke over hay as opposed to hard woods, giving a very subtle smoky flavor to the cheese.

The technique I'm using for this is very similar to the provola in that I'm allowing the cheese to shape under its own weight. However, instead of allowing the cheese to come to a point and seal making a money bag, if you will, and using my thumb at the top of the cheese to create a seal.

The importance of shaping not only contributes to the aging process but also determines the method in which we tie or hang the cheese in the cave. For provola, I'm going to tie all sides of the cheese to give structure and support to the cheese as it hangs in the cave. Because this is a larger format cheese, I want to make sure that it has good support on all four sides.

I'm using a traditional natural fiber twine for provola; I like to leave it in salamoya for about 30 minutes per pound instead of tying. For kacho cavallo, I'm going to place the cheese in a net so that the scamorza does not break apart in the aging process. Always, I want to make sure that I don't tie the string too tight and that I leave a nice thick neck around the top to work with.

Here are our finished aged cheeses ready for the cave.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enmy name is rin caputo i'm a cheese maker and founder of caputo brothers creamery today i'm going to be showing you how to make fresh and aged pasta filata cheeses when we're making cheese the main ingredient is going to be the curd that we're going to use to stretch into the different cheeses first cheese we're going to be making today is fior de late or as most people know it in this country mozzarella we're starting with about two pounds of curd that we need to break up and salt so that we can stretch into fresh mozzarella mozzarella is really the pasta filata that is the foundation for all of the other fresh cheeses we'll be working with today when we're breaking up the curds we want to make sure that we don't crush or crumble the curds we're really just trying to peel them apart this is an important step in the process because we want the curds to be about the same size so that they heat consistently for two pounds of curd i'm adding about a hundred grams of salt although all cheeses start from curd what makes pasta filata cheeses different is that they are finished by stretching in order to get these cheese curds to stretch we need to add hot water 190 degrees fahrenheit is the temperature we'll be using to make all of the cheeses today i'm going to add hot water twice the first time i'm tempering the curds just trying to get them all up to temperature at the same time then i'm going to pour off three quarters of the water once i add the second shot of hot water i'll see the curd starting to stretch i want to get it up on this wooden spoon so i can allow those proteins that got loose to now elongate it's the elongation of those proteins that allows us to have this beautiful waterfall stretch as we like to refer to it what i'm trying to do is work out about 80 percent of the lumps and the bumps to really get this smooth and shiny consistency that i can then form into the balls of mozzarella it's important that i keep as much moisture and butter fat inside the cheese once i've gotten two to three good consistent waterfall stretches and i see that about 80 to 90 percent of the lumps and the bumps have been worked out i know that i'm ready to form my balls of mozzarella this technique will be used in each of the pasta folata cheeses that we'll be making i'm going to gather the masks together making a c with the thumb and first finger of each hand i'll squeeze the c of my left into the tightest fist i can then i'll break the cheese apart that's where the word mozzarella comes from molzare means to break or to cut putting it in the cold water will now help that cheese continue to keep its shape as it cools i stretch so much mozzarella that i can make an eight ounce ball every time you put them on the scale and they're all exactly eight ounces now because this water is 190 degrees it tends to be pretty hot on the hands and i like to keep cold water close by if you just put one hand in cold water your brain actually tells the other hand that it's cool so you don't have to cool both hands at the same time the next cheese i'm going to make is bocconcini you're actually using the same technique to make the ball but you're making it so much smaller forcing more cheese into a compact space and that actually changes the consistency of the cheese quite a bit so it's more like an al dente pasta would be chilly is the next cheese i'm gonna make and it's the same word as cherry because that's the size this is typically something that you would see on an antipasti plate and often is marinated the next cheese i'm going to make is perlini small pearls this is a cheese that would be used more like an accent the smaller the cheese the more compact the protein chains are the firmer the cheese is when you bite into it the first four cheeses i made in the mozzarella family fiera latte bocconcini chili genie and perlini next i'm going to make barata but before i can do that i need to start with its foundation nodini nodini uses the same stretching technique as the other mozzarella style cheese is in this case i'm just going to be making a different shape we're making more of a rope and that rope essentially is taking those proteins and making them into very long strings it's not just to make it pretty it's really about a mouth feel to make a bigger knot i'm going to keep the rope thicker make a quick tie and push the knot up towards the top of the rope similar to tying a necktie another thing i can do is make string stringale is literally string cheese i'm going to make strachatella now the first thing i'm going to do is add good quality heavy cream into a bowl then i'm going to add salt to the heavy cream stretch nutella is actually a very easy cheese to make i will use the nodini or the string galley to tear the cheese apart making strings burrata was actually invented as a leftover cheese traditionally strachatella would be made from nodini that was refrigerated the day before because after refrigeration the texture might have gotten a little tough by tearing it apart and placing in a heavy cream it'll tenderize now i'm ready to make the barata instead of placing the ball of mozzarella in the water i'll actually flip it over and flatten the edges making a ravioli shape that meaty center of the ravioli shape can now be used to insert the stratchatella that cheese that was in the center will now start to create a little pouch that the strachatella can sit in i'll gather up the sides that i made then and press the cheese together sealing it tight to me brat is the perfect example of how italians waste nothing that was noddini strachatella stringale and barata now let's mix folia sfoglia is a very versatile cheese and translates to sheet i'm going to treat this as if it was pizza dough put it into a sheet pan and then fill it once the soil is properly stretched instead of placing it in cold water i'm actually going to wrap it tight and place it in the refrigerator to get it to cool down now it's time for me to roll it up i'm going to add greens and prosciutto it's typically something that would be on top of the counter and would be served as a lunch item in casa fischios and then you eat it like a sandwich as i'm rolling i want to make sure i keep it nice and tight so i can cut it into sections and they'll stay together the last fresh cheese i'm going to make today is trecchia or a braid the braided cheese is really a nice way for the cheese maker in italy to show off when i started making cheese 15 years ago it was not common for there to be women in the production area of casa ficio so when i first started to make trachea it was tough one day i was working with rafael a cheese making friend and i took a video of him he he makes amazing threat and i spent that night watching the video over and over again working with a piece of rope until i was finally able to get it down and the next day when i came back to work and it became time to do threats i was able to show off my technique and raphael he came across to me and he said casada he called me cheese maker and it was a really cool moment these are all the finished fresh pasta filata cheeses now i'm going to show you how to make aged pasta filata cheeses the first thing i'm going to do is make a salamoya or salt brine to make a fully saturated salt brine i need three pounds of salt for every five gallons of water for aged cheeses we're going to be putting those in the cave and so i need to make sure that the salt is on the outside of the cheese to preserve the cheese properly for aging now i'm going to make provolo which is just a small format of provolone provola is a cheese that you would typically see in the deep south this is a cheese that would be aged for three to six weeks typically and eaten quite young only difference in the stretching technique of age cheeses is once i reach the waterfall stretch i want to vigorously work the cheese to remove as much moisture and butter fat as possible to work out the moisture from the cheese i'm going to stretch the cheese into long ropes and then fold it over on itself at different points in the process my hands actually tell me when the cheese is ready i'll start to feel it getting firmer and the curd starts to feel a little drier in this case i'll be making a log one of the most important techniques of being a good pasta folata cheese maker is knowing that you do not stretch the cheese it stretches itself in this case we're letting gravity do the hard work i'm gently holding the cheese from the top and i'm letting the cheese stretch under its own weight to allow a good seal at the bottom the cheese will elongate into a teardrop shape again i am just the guide here the cheese is melding together forming the seal on its own once i find that closure i remove the excess cheese by breaking it apart and place it in the cold water to ensure the seal stays closed now i'm going to make kacho cavallo literally translated horse cheese because when it's bound together and aged in pairs it looks like the saddlebags of a horse katja cavallo is a cheese that typically comes from southern italy this is about five pounds of curd so kacho cavallo is typically a larger cheese than provola the technique for making kasha kovalo is very similar to the purita latte in this case i'll be making a large ball the key is i just want to make sure that it is closed on the bottom i'll use the remainder of the curds to make scamorza skamortza is typically smaller than provola or cacho cavallo is a cheese that you would most often find in the regions in and around naples and will often be smoked because these cheeses are very young and very mild in flavor italians prefer to smoke over hay as opposed to hard woods giving a very subtle smoky flavor to the cheese the technique i'm using for this is very similar to the provola in that i'm allowing the cheese to shape under its own weight however instead of allowing the cheese to come to a point and seal making a money bag if you will and using my thumb at the top of the cheese to create a seal the importance of shaping not only contributes to the aging process but also determines the method in which we tie or hang the cheese in the cave for provolla i'm going to tie all sides of the cheese to give structure and support to the cheese as it hangs in the cave because this is a larger format cheese i want to make sure that it has good support on all four sides i'm using a traditional natural fiber twine for provola i like to leave it in salamoya for about 30 minutes per pound instead of tying i'm going to place the kacho cavallo in a net so that the scamorza does not break apart in the aging process i always want to make sure that i don't tie the string too tight and that i leave a nice thick neck around the top to work with here are our finished aged cheeses ready for the cave and finally here are all the cheeses i made for you todaymy name is rin caputo i'm a cheese maker and founder of caputo brothers creamery today i'm going to be showing you how to make fresh and aged pasta filata cheeses when we're making cheese the main ingredient is going to be the curd that we're going to use to stretch into the different cheeses first cheese we're going to be making today is fior de late or as most people know it in this country mozzarella we're starting with about two pounds of curd that we need to break up and salt so that we can stretch into fresh mozzarella mozzarella is really the pasta filata that is the foundation for all of the other fresh cheeses we'll be working with today when we're breaking up the curds we want to make sure that we don't crush or crumble the curds we're really just trying to peel them apart this is an important step in the process because we want the curds to be about the same size so that they heat consistently for two pounds of curd i'm adding about a hundred grams of salt although all cheeses start from curd what makes pasta filata cheeses different is that they are finished by stretching in order to get these cheese curds to stretch we need to add hot water 190 degrees fahrenheit is the temperature we'll be using to make all of the cheeses today i'm going to add hot water twice the first time i'm tempering the curds just trying to get them all up to temperature at the same time then i'm going to pour off three quarters of the water once i add the second shot of hot water i'll see the curd starting to stretch i want to get it up on this wooden spoon so i can allow those proteins that got loose to now elongate it's the elongation of those proteins that allows us to have this beautiful waterfall stretch as we like to refer to it what i'm trying to do is work out about 80 percent of the lumps and the bumps to really get this smooth and shiny consistency that i can then form into the balls of mozzarella it's important that i keep as much moisture and butter fat inside the cheese once i've gotten two to three good consistent waterfall stretches and i see that about 80 to 90 percent of the lumps and the bumps have been worked out i know that i'm ready to form my balls of mozzarella this technique will be used in each of the pasta folata cheeses that we'll be making i'm going to gather the masks together making a c with the thumb and first finger of each hand i'll squeeze the c of my left into the tightest fist i can then i'll break the cheese apart that's where the word mozzarella comes from molzare means to break or to cut putting it in the cold water will now help that cheese continue to keep its shape as it cools i stretch so much mozzarella that i can make an eight ounce ball every time you put them on the scale and they're all exactly eight ounces now because this water is 190 degrees it tends to be pretty hot on the hands and i like to keep cold water close by if you just put one hand in cold water your brain actually tells the other hand that it's cool so you don't have to cool both hands at the same time the next cheese i'm going to make is bocconcini you're actually using the same technique to make the ball but you're making it so much smaller forcing more cheese into a compact space and that actually changes the consistency of the cheese quite a bit so it's more like an al dente pasta would be chilly is the next cheese i'm gonna make and it's the same word as cherry because that's the size this is typically something that you would see on an antipasti plate and often is marinated the next cheese i'm going to make is perlini small pearls this is a cheese that would be used more like an accent the smaller the cheese the more compact the protein chains are the firmer the cheese is when you bite into it the first four cheeses i made in the mozzarella family fiera latte bocconcini chili genie and perlini next i'm going to make barata but before i can do that i need to start with its foundation nodini nodini uses the same stretching technique as the other mozzarella style cheese is in this case i'm just going to be making a different shape we're making more of a rope and that rope essentially is taking those proteins and making them into very long strings it's not just to make it pretty it's really about a mouth feel to make a bigger knot i'm going to keep the rope thicker make a quick tie and push the knot up towards the top of the rope similar to tying a necktie another thing i can do is make string stringale is literally string cheese i'm going to make strachatella now the first thing i'm going to do is add good quality heavy cream into a bowl then i'm going to add salt to the heavy cream stretch nutella is actually a very easy cheese to make i will use the nodini or the string galley to tear the cheese apart making strings burrata was actually invented as a leftover cheese traditionally strachatella would be made from nodini that was refrigerated the day before because after refrigeration the texture might have gotten a little tough by tearing it apart and placing in a heavy cream it'll tenderize now i'm ready to make the barata instead of placing the ball of mozzarella in the water i'll actually flip it over and flatten the edges making a ravioli shape that meaty center of the ravioli shape can now be used to insert the stratchatella that cheese that was in the center will now start to create a little pouch that the strachatella can sit in i'll gather up the sides that i made then and press the cheese together sealing it tight to me brat is the perfect example of how italians waste nothing that was noddini strachatella stringale and barata now let's mix folia sfoglia is a very versatile cheese and translates to sheet i'm going to treat this as if it was pizza dough put it into a sheet pan and then fill it once the soil is properly stretched instead of placing it in cold water i'm actually going to wrap it tight and place it in the refrigerator to get it to cool down now it's time for me to roll it up i'm going to add greens and prosciutto it's typically something that would be on top of the counter and would be served as a lunch item in casa fischios and then you eat it like a sandwich as i'm rolling i want to make sure i keep it nice and tight so i can cut it into sections and they'll stay together the last fresh cheese i'm going to make today is trecchia or a braid the braided cheese is really a nice way for the cheese maker in italy to show off when i started making cheese 15 years ago it was not common for there to be women in the production area of casa ficio so when i first started to make trachea it was tough one day i was working with rafael a cheese making friend and i took a video of him he he makes amazing threat and i spent that night watching the video over and over again working with a piece of rope until i was finally able to get it down and the next day when i came back to work and it became time to do threats i was able to show off my technique and raphael he came across to me and he said casada he called me cheese maker and it was a really cool moment these are all the finished fresh pasta filata cheeses now i'm going to show you how to make aged pasta filata cheeses the first thing i'm going to do is make a salamoya or salt brine to make a fully saturated salt brine i need three pounds of salt for every five gallons of water for aged cheeses we're going to be putting those in the cave and so i need to make sure that the salt is on the outside of the cheese to preserve the cheese properly for aging now i'm going to make provolo which is just a small format of provolone provola is a cheese that you would typically see in the deep south this is a cheese that would be aged for three to six weeks typically and eaten quite young only difference in the stretching technique of age cheeses is once i reach the waterfall stretch i want to vigorously work the cheese to remove as much moisture and butter fat as possible to work out the moisture from the cheese i'm going to stretch the cheese into long ropes and then fold it over on itself at different points in the process my hands actually tell me when the cheese is ready i'll start to feel it getting firmer and the curd starts to feel a little drier in this case i'll be making a log one of the most important techniques of being a good pasta folata cheese maker is knowing that you do not stretch the cheese it stretches itself in this case we're letting gravity do the hard work i'm gently holding the cheese from the top and i'm letting the cheese stretch under its own weight to allow a good seal at the bottom the cheese will elongate into a teardrop shape again i am just the guide here the cheese is melding together forming the seal on its own once i find that closure i remove the excess cheese by breaking it apart and place it in the cold water to ensure the seal stays closed now i'm going to make kacho cavallo literally translated horse cheese because when it's bound together and aged in pairs it looks like the saddlebags of a horse katja cavallo is a cheese that typically comes from southern italy this is about five pounds of curd so kacho cavallo is typically a larger cheese than provola the technique for making kasha kovalo is very similar to the purita latte in this case i'll be making a large ball the key is i just want to make sure that it is closed on the bottom i'll use the remainder of the curds to make scamorza skamortza is typically smaller than provola or cacho cavallo is a cheese that you would most often find in the regions in and around naples and will often be smoked because these cheeses are very young and very mild in flavor italians prefer to smoke over hay as opposed to hard woods giving a very subtle smoky flavor to the cheese the technique i'm using for this is very similar to the provola in that i'm allowing the cheese to shape under its own weight however instead of allowing the cheese to come to a point and seal making a money bag if you will and using my thumb at the top of the cheese to create a seal the importance of shaping not only contributes to the aging process but also determines the method in which we tie or hang the cheese in the cave for provolla i'm going to tie all sides of the cheese to give structure and support to the cheese as it hangs in the cave because this is a larger format cheese i want to make sure that it has good support on all four sides i'm using a traditional natural fiber twine for provola i like to leave it in salamoya for about 30 minutes per pound instead of tying i'm going to place the kacho cavallo in a net so that the scamorza does not break apart in the aging process i always want to make sure that i don't tie the string too tight and that i leave a nice thick neck around the top to work with here are our finished aged cheeses ready for the cave and finally here are all the cheeses i made for you today\n"