Cheese

There are hundreds of types of cheese produced all over the world

A Brief History of Cheese

Most authorities consider that cheese was first made in the Middle East.
The earliest type was a form of sour milk which came into being when it
was discovered that domesticated animals could be milked.
A legendary story has it that cheese was 'discovered' by an unknown Arab nomad.
He is said to have filled a saddlebag with milk to sustain him on a journey
across the desert by horse. After several hours riding he stopped to quench his thirst,
only to find that the milk had separated into a pale watery liquid and solid white lumps
. Because the saddlebag, which was made from the stomach of a young animal, contained
a coagulating enzyme known as rennin, the milk had been effectively separated into
curds and whey by the combination of the rennin, the hot sun and the galloping
motions of the horse. The nomad, unconcerned with technical details,
found the whey drinkable and the curds edible.

Cheese was known to the ancient Sumerians four thousand years before the birth of Christ.
The ancient Greeks credited Aristaeus, a son of Apollo and Cyrene, with its discovery;
it is mentioned in the Old Testament.

In the Roman era cheese really came into its own. Cheesemaking was done with skill
and knowledge and reached a high standard. By this time the ripening process had
been developed and it was known that various treatments and conditions under storage
resulted in different flavours and characteristics.
The larger Roman houses had a separate cheese kitchen,
the caseale, and also special areas where cheese could be matured.
In large towns home-made cheese could be taken to a special centre to be smoked.
Cheese was served on the tables of the nobility and traveled to the far corners of the
Roman Empire as a regular part of the rations of the legions.


During the Middle Ages, monks became innovators and developers and it is to them
we owe many of the classic varieties of cheese marketed today.
During the Renaissance period cheese suffered a drop in popularity, being considered
unhealthy, but it regained favour by the nineteenth century, the period that saw
the start of the move from farm to factory production.

Widcome, Richard. The Cheese Book. Seacaucus: Chartwell Books, 1978.

Cheesecake is believed to have originated in ancient Greece.
Historians believe that cheesecake was served to the athletes during the first
Olympic Games held in 776 B.C. However, cheese making can be traced back
as far as 2,000 B.C., anthropologists have found cheese molds dating back to that
period.Factory-made cheese overtook traditional cheesemaking
 in the World War II era, and factories have been the source
of most cheese in America and Europe ever since.