Discover interesting facts about cheese


Nowadays cheese

Ancient Greek mythology creditedin Europe was slow during the centuries
Aristaeus with the discovery of cheese.after Rome's fall. Many of the cheeses
Homer's Odyssey (8th century BCE)we know best today were first recorded
describes the Cyclops making and storingin the late Middle Ages or after—
sheep's and goats' milk cheese. Fromcheeses like cheddar around 1500 CE,
Samuel Butler's translation:Parmesan in 1597, Gouda in 1697, and
We soon reached his cave, but he was outCamembert in 1791.
shepherding, so we went inside and tookIn 1546, John Heywood wrote in Proverbes
stock of all that we could see. Histhat "the moon is made of a greene
cheese-racks were loaded with cheeses,cheese." (Greene refers here not to the
and he had more lambs and kids than hiscolor, as many now think, but to being
pens could hold...new or unaged.)[3] Variations on this
When he had so done he sat down andsentiment were long repeated. Although
milked his ewes and goats, all in duesome people assumed that this was a
course, and then let each of them haveserious belief in the era before space
her own young. He curdled half the milkexploration, it is more likely that
and set it aside in wicker strainers...Heywood was indulging in nonsense.
By Roman times, cheese was an everydayModern era
food and cheesemaking a mature art, notUntil its modern spread along with
very different from what it is today.European culture, cheese was nearly
Columella's De Re Rustica (circa 65 CE)unheard of in oriental cultures,
details a cheesemaking process involvinguninvented in the pre-columbian
rennet coagulation, pressing of theAmericas, and of only limited use in
curd, salting, and aging. Pliny'ssub-mediterranean Africa, mainly being
Natural History (77 CE) devotes awidespread and popular only in Europe
chapter (XI, 97) to describing theand areas influenced strongly by its
diversity of cheeses enjoyed by Romanscultures. But with the spread, first of
of the early Empire. He stated that theEuropean imperialism, and later of
best cheeses came from the villages nearEuro-American culture and food, cheese
Nîmes, but did not keep long and had tohas gradually become known and
be eaten fresh. Cheeses of the Alps andincreasingly popular worldwide, though
Apennines were as remarkable for theirstill rarely considered a part of local
variety then as now. A Ligurian cheeseethnic cuisine.
was noted for being made mostly fromThe first factory for the industrial
sheep's milk, and some cheeses producedproduction of cheese opened in
nearby were stated to weigh as much as aSwitzerland in 1815, but it was in the
thousand pounds each. Goats' milk cheeseUnited States where large-scale
was a recent taste in Rome, improvedproduction first found real success.
over the "medicinal taste" of Gaul'sCredit usually goes to Jesse Williams, a
similar cheeses by smoking. Of cheesesdairy farmer from Rome, New York, who in
from overseas, Pliny preferred those of1851 started making cheese in an
Bithynia in Asia Minor.assembly-line fashion using the milk
Post-classical Europefrom neighboring farms. Within decades
Rome spread a uniform set ofhundreds of such dairy associations
cheesemaking techniques throughout muchexisted.
of Europe, and introduced cheesemakingThe 1860s saw the beginnings of
to areas without a previous history ofmass-produced rennet, and by the turn of
it. As Rome declined and long-distancethe century scientists were producing
trade collapsed, cheese in Europepure microbial cultures. Before then,
diversified further, with variousbacteria in cheesemaking had come from
locales developing their own distinctivethe environment or from recycling an
cheesemaking traditions and products.earlier batch's whey; the pure cultures
France and Italy are the nations withmeant a more standardized cheese could
the most diversity in locally madebe produced.
cheeses— today with approximately 400Factory-made cheese overtook traditional
each. (A French proverb holds there is acheesemaking in the World War II era,
different French cheese for every day ofand factories have been the source of
the year, and Charles de Gaulle oncemost cheese in America and Europe ever
asked "how can you govern a country insince. Today, Americans buy more
which there are 246 kinds of cheese?"processed cheese than "real",
Still, the advancement of the cheese artfactory-made or not.



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