e--so uncheese-like and so charmingly
fragile--is exciting. Nine times out of ten a Brie will let you
down--will be all caked into layers, which shows it is too young, or
at the over-runny stage, which means it is too old--but when you come
on the tenth Brie, _coulant_ to just the right, delicate creaminess,
and the color of fresh, sweet butter, no other cheese can compare with
it.

The season of Brie, like that of oysters, is simple to remember: only
months with an "R," beginning with September, which is the best, bar
none.

Caciocavallo

From Bulgaria to Turkey the Italian "horse cheese," as Caciocavallo
translates, is as universally popular as it is at home and in all the
Little Italics throughout the rest of the world. Flattering imitations
are made and named after it, as follows:

BULGARIA: Kascaval

GREECE: Kashcavallo and Caskcaval

HUNGARY: Parenica

RUMANIA: Pentele and Kascaval

SERBIA: Katschkawalj

SYRIA: Cashkavallo

TRANSYLVANIA: Kascaval (as in Rumania)

TURKEY: Cascaval Penir

YUGOSLAVIA: Kackavalj

A horse's head printed on the cheese gave rise to its popular name and
to the myth that it is made of mare's milk. It is, however, curded
from cow's milk, whole or partly skimmed, and sometimes from water
buffalo; hard, yellow and so buttery that the best of it, which comes
from Sorrento, is called _Cacio burro,_ butter cheese. Slightly salty,
with a spicy tang, it is eaten sliced when young and mild and used for
grating and seasoning when old, not only on the usual Italian pastes
but on sweets.

Different from the many grating cheeses made from little balls of curd
called _grana_, Caciocavallo is a _pasta fileta_, or drawn-curd
product. Because of this it is sometimes drawn out in long thick
threads and braided. It is a cheese for skilled artists to make
sculptures with, sometimes horses' heads, again bunches of grapes and
other fruits, even as Provolone is shaped like apples and pears and
often worked into elaborate bas-relief designs. But ordinarily the
horse's head is a plain tenpin in shape or a squat bottle with a knob
on the side by which it has been tied up, two cheeses at a time, on
opposite sides of a rafter, while being smoked lightly golden and
rubbed with olive oil and butter to make it all the more buttery.

In Calabria and Sicily it is very popular, and although the best comes