The cheese-making process was carried out using the standard Caciocavallo cheese-making technology, introducing changes when appropriate. The different milk percentages, the required rennet amount and the time of coagulum, and the pH of the curd at the stretching point were selected on the basis of preliminary tests, depending on the coagulation ability of the obtained mixtures and on the stretching properties of the curd (data not shown). Each milk percentage varied within a relatively narrow range, compatible with a reasonable quality standard of the final product, mainly with respect to the DM content. The optimal final ratios were the following: 82:18 (vol/vol) for CE milk and 65:35 (vol/vol) for CG milk. The pH values for CE and CG milk cheeses were chosen to confer the optimum stretch ability to the curds: higher pH values gave a tough curd that fractured during stretching, whereas lower pH values resulted in a soft curd that collapsed during stretching. Moreover, before the cutting step, the curds of Caciocavallo cheeses made of CG milk were also cooked at 40°C for 35 min, with the aim of accelerating curd draining (Imm et al., 2003; Alichanidis and Polychroniadou, 2008). The cheese-making technology used in the experiments is summarized in Figure 1. The exact details of the cheese-making technology are reported in the Materials and Methods section.