| Ancient Greek mythology credited Aristaeus | | | | art in Europe was slow during the centuries |
| with the discovery of cheese. Homer's Odyssey | | | | after Rome's fall. Many of the cheeses we |
| (8th century BCE) describes the Cyclops | | | | know best today were first recorded in the |
| making and storing sheep's and goats' milk | | | | late Middle Ages or after— cheeses |
| cheese. From Samuel Butler's translation: | | | | like cheddar around 1500 CE, Parmesan in |
| | | | 1597, Gouda in 1697, and Camembert in 1791. |
| We soon reached his cave, but he was out | | | | |
| shepherding, so we went inside and took stock | | | | In 1546, John Heywood wrote in Proverbes that |
| of all that we could see. His cheese-racks | | | | "the moon is made of a greene cheese." |
| were loaded with cheeses, and he had more | | | | (Greene refers here not to the color, as many |
| lambs and kids than his pens could hold... | | | | now think, but to being new or unaged.)[3] |
| | | | Variations on this sentiment were long |
| When he had so done he sat down and milked | | | | repeated. Although some people assumed that |
| his ewes and goats, all in due course, and | | | | this was a serious belief in the era before |
| then let each of them have her own young. He | | | | space exploration, it is more likely that |
| curdled half the milk and set it aside in | | | | Heywood was indulging in nonsense. |
| wicker strainers... | | | | |
| | | | Modern era |
| By Roman times, cheese was an everyday food | | | | |
| and cheesemaking a mature art, not very | | | | Until its modern spread along with European |
| different from what it is today. Columella's | | | | culture, cheese was nearly unheard of in |
| De Re Rustica (circa 65 CE) details a | | | | oriental cultures, uninvented in the |
| cheesemaking process involving rennet | | | | pre-columbian Americas, and of only limited |
| coagulation, pressing of the curd, salting, | | | | use in sub-mediterranean Africa, mainly being |
| and aging. Pliny's Natural History (77 CE) | | | | widespread and popular only in Europe and |
| devotes a chapter (XI, 97) to describing the | | | | areas influenced strongly by its cultures. |
| diversity of cheeses enjoyed by Romans of the | | | | But with the spread, first of European |
| early Empire. He stated that the best cheeses | | | | imperialism, and later of Euro-American |
| came from the villages near Nîmes, but did | | | | culture and food, cheese has gradually become |
| not keep long and had to be eaten fresh. | | | | known and increasingly popular worldwide, |
| Cheeses of the Alps and Apennines were as | | | | though still rarely considered a part of |
| remarkable for their variety then as now. A | | | | local ethnic cuisine. |
| Ligurian cheese was noted for being made | | | | |
| mostly from sheep's milk, and some cheeses | | | | The first factory for the industrial |
| produced nearby were stated to weigh as much | | | | production of cheese opened in Switzerland in |
| as a thousand pounds each. Goats' milk cheese | | | | 1815, but it was in the United States where |
| was a recent taste in Rome, improved over the | | | | large-scale production first found real |
| "medicinal taste" of Gaul's similar cheeses | | | | success. Credit usually goes to Jesse |
| by smoking. Of cheeses from overseas, Pliny | | | | Williams, a dairy farmer from Rome, New York, |
| preferred those of Bithynia in Asia Minor. | | | | who in 1851 started making cheese in an |
| | | | assembly-line fashion using the milk from |
| Post-classical Europe | | | | neighboring farms. Within decades hundreds of |
| | | | such dairy associations existed. |
| Rome spread a uniform set of cheesemaking | | | | |
| techniques throughout much of Europe, and | | | | The 1860s saw the beginnings of mass-produced |
| introduced cheesemaking to areas without a | | | | rennet, and by the turn of the century |
| previous history of it. As Rome declined and | | | | scientists were producing pure microbial |
| long-distance trade collapsed, cheese in | | | | cultures. Before then, bacteria in |
| Europe diversified further, with various | | | | cheesemaking had come from the environment or |
| locales developing their own distinctive | | | | from recycling an earlier batch's whey; the |
| cheesemaking traditions and products. France | | | | pure cultures meant a more standardized |
| and Italy are the nations with the most | | | | cheese could be produced. |
| diversity in locally made cheeses— | | | | |
| today with approximately 400 each. (A French | | | | Factory-made cheese overtook traditional |
| proverb holds there is a different French | | | | cheesemaking in the World War II era, and |
| cheese for every day of the year, and Charles | | | | factories have been the source of most cheese |
| de Gaulle once asked "how can you govern a | | | | in America and Europe ever since. Today, |
| country in which there are 246 kinds of | | | | Americans buy more processed cheese than |
| cheese?" Still, the advancement of the cheese | | | | "real", factory-made or not. |