History of Cheese
Cheese is one of the most assorted and delicate foods in the world. The taste of cheese can be mild, buttery, spicy, rich, creamy, sharp, salty or subtle. Its texture can be firm, flaky or so soft that it needs to be eaten with a spoon. The aroma can be mild to intense. Cheese can serve as the perfect escort for wines, an excellently pleasing finish to a gourmet meal.
Cheese appeared for the first time in approximately 7000 B.C., which was about the time persons, began to raise farm animals. Legend has it that a desert nomad was carrying milk in a pouch made from a sheep’s stomach. Rennet or rennin which is a coagulating enzyme was formed in the lining of the pouch. Combined with the sun’s heat it caused the milk to separate into solid white lumps and a pale watery liquid.
Inquisitive, and no doubt starving, the nomad drank the whey and tasted the curd. The nomad found the whey drinkable and the curds edible.It is said that cheese was first manufactured in the Middle East. The most primitive type of cheese was a kind of sour milk. This type of milk came into being when it was found out that domesticated animals could be milked.
Cheese making was done with ability and knowledge and reached an elevated standard. By then the ripening process had been developed and several treatments and conditions in regards to storage resulted in different flavours, textures, aroma and colours, which are the main characteristics in types of cheeses.
In the middle ages, monks became trendsetters and developers and it is to them we should be obligated to for many of the classic assortment of cheese on the market today. During the Renaissance era cheese went through a decrease in fame. It was said to be unhealthy, but reclaimed favour by the 19th century, the era that saw the beginning of the progress from
farm to factory production.
According to Greek Mythology what perhaps happened is one day a shepherd realized that milk curdled when placed with certain herbs or the juice of specific fruits. This curdled milk tasted more enticing than ordinary milk and lasted longer. The shepherd perfected his cheese making skills as cheese became the first man-made food. As cheese is just the concentrated milk, it made sense to ancient man that the excellence of the milk determined the quality of the cheese.
So man began to move his animals to the fertile meadows full of wild herbs, flowers and grasses. The early days of cheese making were not restricted to cows, goats and sheep. Cheese was made from mares and donkeys also.
It is said that the Greeks established the advance of cheese making procedures from basic to newer methods. However, Romans were accountable for coaching the rest of the world in how to make cheese. Nutrition, maturing, temperatures and salting of cheese are written in Roman texts. Cheese today is one of the most interesting, diverse, wholesome and delicious foods known to man. Thanks to Romans, Greeks and others before them.
Types of cheese..
different-types-of-cheese.
