Taleggio P.D.O.

Like other cheeses, Taleggio was used, as early as the 10th-11th centuries, as a bargaining chip and was identified as “Stracchino” or “Stracchino quadro di Milano.” The name referred not only to Taleggio, but also to all those soft cheeses that were made from the milk of the cows that came down to the valley from the mountain pastures and were therefore “stracch,” or tired from the long journey. It was in 1918 that it was traced in Alfredo Panzini’s Modern Dictionary to its present-day name “Taleggio,” until then called “Stracchino di Val Taleggio.”