History of Cheese

March 11, 2008

I like cheese. A lot. My mom and I joke that adding cheese to any dish will make it good. In lieu of my first recipe, grilled cheese, I wanted to discuss the history of cheese. Although I enjoy cheese quite a bit, I generally stick to the staples: cheddar, pepperjack, American, parmesan, etc. I want to expand my horizons, however, so eventually I will begin a cheese of the month where I profile individual cheeses, commenting on taste, use, availability, and price. Today will be merely a brief overview of cheese history, primarily taken from the excellent book, On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee. In an overly simplified explanation, cheese is made by curdling milk (acid causes milk proteins - casein - to bunch and become solid), removing the water, brining (adding salt more or less), adding rennet - microbes from animal stomach lining, and finally repeating this process and allowing the curds to age. The first evidence of cheese is found in an Egyptian pot from c.2300 B.C., but the ancestors of cheese probably began in the Middle East or Asia around 3000 B.C. when farmers discovered that they could preserve soured milk by draining the excess water. Soon the advent of preserving the curds in or with stomach lining made the “cheese” more durable. Cheese production eventually moved northward into Europe where farmers preserved curds with less brining due to the cooler temperatures. McGee explains that the addition of time, thanks to the cooler temperatures, made cheese a more viable and tasty source of food. Due to writings by the Romans Columella and Pliny, we know that cheese was in full production by the Roman period. The post-antique history of cheese saw local communities making cheese that suited their needs and this led to a great increase in cheese variety. Cheese-making turned into an art by the 18th century, with recognizable aged cheeses becoming a delicacy for the rich while softer cheeses that spoiled more quickly became a staple of the lower-class diet. The industrialization of cheese brought standardized pure rennet, eliminating the local character of many cheeses. World War II witnessed the destruction of many traditional cheese-making regions and ushered in the era of factory produced cheese, which dominates the landscape today.

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