It is one of the oldest preserved source of nutrient.
Birth of cheese
It would have appeared at the same time as the domestication of the first dairy breed, goat, its domestication and the use of its milk is thought to date back a little over 10,000 years ago in the Fertile crescent where many nomadic tribes settled, this boomerang-shaped region that extends from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf was until modern times a rich food-growing area which provided nomads with vast supplies of food for themselves and their goats and therefore a chance to settle down. There is growing evidence to determine with certainty its region of origin, recent DNA studies have indeed demonstrated that modern goat breeds are descending from ancient ones in Iran. Other dairy animals would soon be domesticated.
Many different civilizations flourished in and from the fertile crescent, They first learnt about and crafted many of the foods we now eat and drink, they are thought to have been carrying milk in bladders made from rumens where an enzyme necessary for its coagulation can be found, rennet. They must have tried the curd that resulted form that coagulation and found out it was easier to digest.
Though there are some written records of the existence of cheese as an industry such as the Sumerians, the Hittites, these records are rather patchy and do not make light on how cheese may have been made.
There is no doubt that centuries later, its making had spread as far as Poland where pierced vessels used for draining curds were found and dated to 7000 years ago.
Greek and Romans
When the ancient Greek civilisation flourished, goat cheese had become an integral part of the their culture, the Cyclops Polyphemus in Homer’s Odyssey had “milking pens for goats and big cheeses aging on racks”. Homer’s account of the Cyclops making cheese ( written around 800BC ) is rather precise and can not have been invented, it is far too similar to modern cheese making to have been romanced! Cheese making had then already reached quite a level of professionalism.
The first to clearly formulate the different stages necessary for the manufacture of cheese is the Roman Columella, in 60 AD in his Treatise on Agronomy. He recommended curdling milk with the stomach of young calves or with fig sap ( a technique still used today ) and then drain it into baskets of rushes or drilled wooden containers and pressed using heavy stones. Columella also specifies the importance of salt in its manufacture, to improve its taste, but also to participate in its drying and preservation.
At that time cheese was already part of the daily ration of the Roman legionaries, César himself would have succumbed to the charm of a blue veined cheese made in Saint Affrique, a few kilometers from Roquefort-sur-Soulzon (Aveyron, Midi-Pyrénées). It is quite possible they may have adopted another cheese, known today as Cantal made following the cheddaring technique, and brought it and its recipe with them to what would later become Great-Britain.
Later Pliny the Elder, circa 77 AD, commented in his Historia Naturalis “Herds of goats also have their special reputation for cheese”.
While telling us that many cheeses from every corners of the Empire could be found in Rome, he quoted as well that “The cheese of the Gallic goats always had a strong medicinal taste” which kind of relates to the taste of rove goats found in modern southern France, they indeed produced little milk but a very aromatic one.
The Romans invented the cheese press we still use today.
With the fall of the Roman Empire and the invasion of the barbarians, a multitude of cheese recipes gradually disappeared. Only a few manufacturing methods were preserved in monasteries or in very remote valleys. The monks developed many cheese recipes which still exist today. Probably as a substitute for meat, many a cheese they created actually have quite a meaty flavour ( see Maroilles, Munster ).
The Middle Ages
It was then that the monks of Europe invented or improved many ripening techniques. They made cheeses with milder flavours. In the Jura and the Alps, some communities of mountain farmers freed themselves and grouped themselves into «fruit» farms, allowing them to make large cheeses which require up to 500 liters at once. ( see Comté, Beaufort ).
Soon, Cheese would no longer be the preserve of a minority.
In 732, several regions gave their name to cheeses that are still marketed today such as, among others, Munster, Gorgonzola and Maroilles the oldest washed rind cheese created in the 10th century.
It is said that cheese making was brought to Wensleydale by French monks who settled at Fors near Aysgarth further down the dale, in 1145. The monks later moved to a new site in Wensleydale at Jervaulx, but they took their cheese-making skills with them. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII, the cheese making skills passed into the hands of local farmers. The very same thing would happen later during the French revolution.
In 1217, Blanche de Navarre sent two hundred cheeses of Brie to Philippe Auguste so that he could offer them as a gift to the ladies of his court.
From the 13th century, women farmers, to ensure their income and make the most of their milk production, developed new varieties of cheese.
We owe a lot to women for the invention of many cheeses, the men indeed were working the fields.
In 1267 in Déservilliers (Doubs, Franche-Comté), the first French cooperative was born.
In the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth I officially promoted Cheshire, which had been made for three centuries.
Recent times
In the 19th century, the history of cheese will take a big turn!
The fresh cheese industry was launched in France around 1850 by Charles Gervais after his visit to a farmer, Dame Héroult, who made fresh cheese.
It is at the origin of the manufacture of «Petit suisse».
In the late 19th century, in the midst of many milk tampering scandals, and a high rate of child mortality, La goutte d'or was created.
It benefited from an invention from the mid 19th century, pasteurisation, and it aimed at distributing pasteurised milk to infants in order to curb mortality, it worked.
This Goutte d'or still exist today in many countries around the world with the very same purpose.
Pasteurised milk cheeses now dominate the market, only a small percentage is made from raw milk. Indeed, in 1950 in France, 100% of cheeses were made from raw milk. Nowadays we are well under 10%. That is not to say pasteurised milk cheeses are bad. One can indeed create a great product from pasteurised milk too even though its flavour may be less complex.