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'{{short description|Aspect of history}} [[File:9-alimenti, formaggi,Taccuino Sanitatis, Casanatense 4182..jpg|thumb|right|Cheese-making, ''[[Tacuinum sanitatis|Tacuinum sanitatis Casanatensis]]'' (14th century)]] {{Special characters}} The production of [[cheese]] predates [[recorded history]], beginning well over 7,000 years ago.<ref name="7kya dalm1">{{cite web | url=https://phys.org/news/2018-09-earliest-mediterranean-cheese-production-revealed.html | title=Evidence of 7,200-year-old cheese making found on the Dalmatian Coast}}</ref><ref name="7kya dalm2">{{cite web | url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/09/news-7200-year-old-cheese-ancient-food-chemistry/ | title=Hints of 7,200-Year-Old Cheese Create a Scientific Stink| website=[[National Geographic Society]]| date=2018-09-05}}</ref><ref name="7kya dalm3">{{Cite journal | doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0202807| pmid=30183735| pmc=6124750|title = Fatty acid specific δ13C values reveal earliest Mediterranean cheese production 7,200 years ago| journal=PLOS ONE| volume=13| issue=9| pages=e0202807|year = 2018|last1 = McClure|first1 = Sarah B.| last2=Magill| first2=Clayton| last3=Podrug| first3=Emil| last4=Moore| first4=Andrew M. T.| last5=Harper| first5=Thomas K.| last6=Culleton| first6=Brendan J.| last7=Kennett| first7=Douglas J.| last8=Freeman| first8=Katherine H.| bibcode=2018PLoSO..1302807M| doi-access=free}}</ref> Humans likely developed cheese and other dairy foods by accident, as a result of storing and transporting [[milk]] in bladders made of [[ruminants]]' stomachs, as their inherent supply of [[rennet]] would encourage [[curdling]]. There is no conclusive evidence indicating where [[cheese-making]] originated, possibly [[Europe]], or [[Central Asia]], [[the Middle East]], or the [[Sahara]]. I LOVE ALL CHEESE NO DISCRIMINATION BE WHO YOU ARE I LOVE YOU CHEESE NEVER GIVE UP ==Earliest origins== The earliest direct evidence of cheesemaking is now being found in clay sieves (holed pottery) over seven thousand years old, for example in [[Kujawy]], [[Poland]],<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Salque M, Bogucki PI, Pyzel J, Sobkowiak-Tabaka I, Grygiel R, etal |year=2012 |title=Earliest evidence for cheese making in the sixth millennium bc in northern Europe |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume= 493|issue= 7433|pages= 522–525|publisher=Nature Publishing Group |doi=10.1038/nature11698 |pmid=23235824|s2cid=4322406 }}</ref> and the [[Dalmatia|Dalmatian coast]] in Croatia, the latter with dried remains which chemical analysis suggests was cheese.<ref name="7kya dalm1" /><ref name="7kya dalm2" /><ref name="7kya dalm3" /> Shards of holed pottery were also found in [[Urnfield culture#Pile dwellings|Urnfield pile-dwellings]] on [[Lake Neuchatel]] in Switzerland and are hypothesized to be cheese-strainers;<ref>Toussaint-Samat 2009:103.</ref> they date back to 6,000 [[Common Era|BCE]] (8,000 years ago).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dev.mualphatheta.org/cheese_and_culture_a_history_of_cheese_and_its_place_in_western_civilization.pdf|title=dev.mualphatheta.org/cheese_and_culture_a_history_of_cheese_and_its_place_in_western_civilization.pdf}}</ref> For preservation purposes, cheese-making may have begun by the pressing and salting of curdled milk. Animal skins and inflated internal organs already provided storage vessels for a range of foodstuffs. Curdling milk in an animal's stomach made solid and better-textured curds, which could easily have led to the conscious addition of [[rennet]]. Hard salted cheese is likely to have accompanied dairying from the outset. It is the only form in which milk can be kept in a hot climate. Dairying existed around 4,000 BC in the [[grasslands of the Sahara]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Simoons |first1=Frederick J. |date=July 1971 |title=The antiquity of dairying in Asia and Africa |journal=Geographical Review |volume=61 |issue=3 |pages= 431–439|publisher=American Geographical Society |doi= 10.2307/213437|jstor=213437 }}<!--|access-date=9 December 2012--></ref> Cheese produced in Europe, where climates are cooler than in the Middle East, required less salt for preservation. With less salt and acidity, the cheese became a suitable environment for useful [[microbe]]s and molds, giving aged cheeses their pronounced and interesting flavors. The earliest written evidence of cheese (<small>GA.UAR</small>) is the [[Sumer]]ian cuneiform texts of [[Third Dynasty of Ur]], dated at the early second millennium BC.<ref>In NBC 11196 (5 NT 24, dated [[Shu-Sin]] 6), the 'abra's of Dumuzi, Ninkasi, and I'kur receive butter and cheese from the 'abra of Inanna, according to W.W. Hallo, "The House of Ur-Meme", ''Journal of Near Eastern Studies'', 1972; a Sumerian/Akkadian bilingual lexicon of ca 1900 BC lists twenty kinds of cheese.</ref> The earliest cheeses were sour and salty and similar in texture to rustic [[cottage cheese]] or present-day [[feta]]. In Late Bronze Age Minoan-[[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] Crete, [[Linear B]] tablets recorded the inventorying of cheese, ([[Mycenaean Greek]] in Linear B: {{lang|gmy|𐀶𐀫}}, ''tu-ro''; later [[Greek language|Greek]]: {{lang|grc|τυρός}})<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Linear B word tu-ro|url=http://www.palaeolexicon.com/ShowWord.aspx?Id=16954|website=Palaeolexicon. Word study tool for ancient languages}}</ref><ref>{{LSJ|turo/s|τυρός|ref}}.</ref> flocks and shepherds.<ref>Michael Ventris and John Chadwick, ''Documents in Mycenaean Greek'', 2nd ed. (Cambridge University Press) 1973:572, 588; implications of modern pre-industrial Cretan pastoralists and cheese production for interpreting the archaeological record, are discussed by [http://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/32-3/Blitzer.pdf H. Blitzer, "Pastoral Life in the Mountains of Crete", 1990].</ref> An Arab legend attributes the discovery of cheese to an Arab trader who used this method of storing milk.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ridgwell |first1=Jenny |last2=Ridgway |first2=Judy |title=Food Around the World |year=1968 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-832728-5 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.moscowfood.coop/archive/cheeses.html |title=Cheese |last1=Reich |first1=Vicky |date=January 2002 |work=Moscow Food Co-op |access-date=December 11, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120530034526/http://www.moscowfood.coop/archive/cheeses.html |archive-date=May 30, 2012 }}</ref> However, cheese was already well known among the [[Sumer]]ians.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Carmona |first1=Salvador |last2=Ezzamel |first2=Mahmoud |year=2007 |title=Accounting and accountability in ancient civilizations: Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt |journal=Accounting and Accountability |volume=20 |issue=2 |publisher=Emeral Group Publishing |doi=10.2139/ssrn.1016353 |url=http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=0951-3574&volume=20&issue=2 |access-date=9 December 2012 |quote=In the Old Sumerian period, cheese delivery quotas of herdsmen in charge were recorded, using jars with standardized liquid capacity as measures (the traditional grain measures), in contrast to archaic times when cheese was counted in discrete units}}</ref> == Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome == [[File:Formaggi.JPG|thumb|Cheese in a market in [[Italy]]]] Archaeological evidence for making [[Egyptian cheese#Ancient Egypt|cheese in Egypt]] goes back about 5,000 years. In 2018, archeologists from [[Cairo University]] and the [[University of Catania]] reported the discovery of the oldest known cheese from [[Egypt]]. Discovered in the [[Saqqara necropolis]], it is around 3200 years old.<ref>{{cite news|title=Ancient Egypt: Cheese discovered in 3,200-year-old tomb|work=BBC News|date=18 August 2018|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-45233347|access-date=August 20, 2018}}</ref> Earlier, remains identified as cheese were found in the funeral meal in an Egyptian tomb dating around 2900 BC.<ref>Walter Bryan Emery: ''A Funerary Repast in an Egyptian Tomb of the Archaic Period''. Nederlands instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, Leiden 1962</ref> Visual evidence of [[Egyptian cheese]]making was found in [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian]] tomb murals in approximately 2000 BC.<ref>History of Cheese. [http://www.gol27.com/HistoryCheese.html] accessed 2007/06/10</ref> Cheese-making was known in Europe at the earliest level of Hellenic myth.<ref>The archaic myth of the culture-hero [[Aristaeus]], who introduced bee-keeping and cheese-making before wine was known in Greece.</ref> According to [[Pliny the Elder]], cheese became a sophisticated enterprise at the start of the [[ancient Rome]] era.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thenibble.com/REVIEWS/main/cheese/cheese2/history.asp|title=The History Of Cheese: From An Ancient Nomad's Horseback To Today's Luxury Cheese Cart |work=The Nibble|publisher=Lifestyle Direct, Inc.|access-date=2009-10-15}}</ref> During the [[ancient Rome]] era, valued foreign cheeses were transported to Rome to satisfy the tastes of the social elite. Ancient [[Greek mythology]] credited [[Aristaeus]] with the discovery of cheese. [[Homer]]'s ''[[Odyssey]]'' (late 8th century BC) describes the [[Cyclops]] producing and storing sheep's and goat's milk and cheese: {{cquote|We soon reached his cave, but he was out shepherding, so we went inside and took stock of all that we could see. His cheese-racks were loaded with cheeses, and he had more lambs and kids than his pens could hold...<br> When he had so done he sat down and milked his ewes and goats, all in due course, and then let each of them have her own young. He curdled half the milk and set it aside in [[wicker]] strainers.<ref>[[Samuel Butler (1835-1902)|Samuel Butler's]] translation.</ref>}} A letter of [[Epicurus]] to his patron requests a wheel of hard cheese so that he may make a feast whenever he wishes. Pliny recorded the Roman tradition that [[Zoroaster]] had lived on cheese.<ref>[[Pliny's Natural History]], iii .85.</ref> By [[Ancient Rome|Roman times]], cheese-making was a mature art and common food group. [[Columella]]'s ''De Re Rustica'' (circa 65 CE) details a cheese-making process involving rennet coagulation, pressing of the curd, salting, and aging. [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny's]] [[Natural History (Pliny)|''Natural History'']] (77 CE) devotes two chapters (XI, 96–97) to the diversity of cheeses enjoyed by Romans of the early [[Roman Empire|Empire]]. He stated that the best cheeses came from ''pagi'' near [[Nîmes]], and were identifiable as [[Lozère]] and [[Gévaudan]] and had to be eaten fresh. == Post-Roman Europe == Most cheeses were initially recorded in the late [[Middle Ages]]. [[Cheddar cheese|Cheddar]] was recorded since the 1100s, [[Parmesan cheese|Parmesan]] (Parmigiano Reggiano) was founded in 1597, [[Gouda (cheese)|Gouda]] in 1697, and [[Camembert (cheese)|Camembert]] in 1791.<ref>{{cite book | author=Smith, John H. | title=Cheesemaking in Scotland - A History | publisher=The Scottish Dairy Association | year=1995 | isbn=0-9525323-0-1}}</ref> Cheeses diversified in Europe with locales developing their own traditions and products when Romanized populations encountered unfamiliar neighbors with their own cheese-making traditions. As long-distance trade collapsed, only travelers encountered unfamiliar cheeses. [[Charlemagne]]'s first encounter with an edible rind white cheese forms one of the constructed anecdotes of [[Notker the Stammerer|Notker]]'s ''Life'' of the Emperor.<ref>Notker, §15.</ref> Cheese-making in manor and monastery intensified local characteristics imparted by local bacterial flora while the identification of monks with cheese is sustained through modern marketing labels.<ref>Noted in passing by Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat ''A History of Food'', 2nd ed. 2009:106.</ref> This also led to a diversity of cheese types. Today, Britain has 15 protected cheeses from approximately 40 types listed by the British Cheese Board. The British Cheese Board claims a total number of about 700 different products (including similar cheeses produced by different companies).<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.britishcheese.com/information | title = British Cheese homepage | year = 2007 | publisher = British Cheese Board | access-date = 2009-10-15}}</ref> France has 50 protected cheeses, Italy 52,<ref> {{cite web | url = https://www.politicheagricole.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/7469 </ref> and Spain 26. Italy has at least 400 cheeses. <ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.kitchenstories.com/en/stories/the-complete-guide-to-italian-cheeses-and-the-13-kinds-to-know </ref> Meanwhile, the advancement of cheese art in Europe was slow during the centuries after Rome's fall. It became a staple of long-distance commerce,<ref>Details of the local costs and export duties in importing cheese from [[Apulia]] to Florence, ca 1310-40, are included in Francesco di Balduccio Pergolotti's ''Practice of Commerce'', translated in Robert Sabatino Lopez, Irving Woodworth Raymond, ''Medieval trade in the Mediterranean world: illustrative documents'', 2001:117, no. 46.</ref> was disregarded as peasant fare,<ref>The stratification of medieval food is discussed in Stephen Mennell, ''All Manners of Food: Eating and Taste in England and France from the Middle Ages to the Present'', 1996: "Eating in the Middle Ages: the social distribution of food", pp 41ff; Mennell observes, "Dairy produce very much remained identified with the lower orders and disdained by the grand", adding "one of the few ways in which peasants in the mountains of Provence had a dietary advantage over the archbishop [of Arles] was in their high consumption of cheese."</ref> inappropriate on a noble table, and even harmful to one's health through the Middle Ages.<ref>William Edward Mead, ''The English Medieval Feast'', 1931 notes "the advice to avoid peaches, apples, pears and cheese, etc., as injurious to health" as unintelligible to moderns.</ref> [[File:Auchabrack - the press - geograph.org.uk - 798875.jpg|thumb|A disused stone cheese-press at the farm Auchabrack, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland]] In 1546, ''[[The Proverbs of John Heywood]]'' claimed "the moon is made of a greene cheese" (''Greene'' is referred to being new or unaged).<ref>Cecil Adams (1999). [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a990723a.html "Straight Dope: How did the moon=green cheese myth start?".] Retrieved October 15, 2005.</ref> Variations on this sentiment were long repeated and [[NASA]] exploited this myth for an [[April Fools' Day]] spoof announcement in 2006.<ref>{{Cite APOD|title=Hubble Resolves Expiration Date For Green Cheese Moon |date=1 April 2006|access-date=2009-10-08}}</ref> == Americas == Reports by conquistadors suggest that the [[Inca]] and other Andean cultures consumed [[llama]] cheese.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dairymoos.com/milk-in-pre-columbian-america/|title = Milk in Pre-Columbian America &#124; Dairy Moos|date = 12 February 2017}}</ref> However some studies failed to find any references to milking in these cultures.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G01-CzUS6WgC&q=llama+milk+andes&pg=PA103 |title = Nature and Culture in the Andes|isbn = 9780299161248|last1 = Gade|first1 = Daniel W.|year = 1999}}</ref> Since the [[European colonization of the Americas]], local cheeses have been developed across both [[List of cheeses#North America|North]] and [[List of cheeses#South America|South America]]. Mass-produced cheese has become quite common, replacing hand-made and/or local cheeses even more in the United States than in Europe. Recently{{when?|date=July 2021}}, more people in the US have been making [[Farmstead cheese|farmstead]] (or farmhouse) and [[artisan cheese]]s.<ref name="Paxson2013">{{citation|author=Heather Paxson|title=The Life of Cheese Crafting Food and Value in America|date=2013|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-52-027018-3|pages=56–59}}</ref> == Asia == Preserved cheese dating from 1615 BC was found in the Taklamakan Desert in [[Xinjiang]], [[China]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Oldest Cheese Found|website=[[USA Today]]|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/02/25/worlds-oldest-cheese/5776373/|access-date=February 25, 2015}}</ref> Local cheese today is commonly made or available in most of [[South Asia]] in the form of [[paneer]] and related cheeses. [[Rubing]] in [[Yunnan]], China is similar to paneer. Mainstream Chinese culture is not dairy-centric, but some outlying regions of the country including Yunnan have strong cheese traditions. There are a variety of [[Tibetan cheese]]s. == Modern == {{Further|Farmstead cheese|Artisan cheese}} Until its modern spread along with European culture, cheese was most common by far in Europe, and the Middle East and North Africa. It was unheard of or far less common in sub-Saharan Africa, the rest of Asia, and pre-colonization Americas. Although cheese is still less prominent in local cuisines outside of Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas, most cheeses have become popular worldwide through the spread of European and Euro-American empires and culture. === Mass production === The first factory for the industrial production of cheese opened in Switzerland in 1815. However, the large-scale production found real success in the United States. Credit goes to Jesse Williams, a dairy farmer from [[Rome, New York|Rome]], [[New York (state)|New York]]. Williams began making cheese in an [[assembly line|assembly-line]] fashion using the milk from neighbouring farms in 1851. Within decades, hundreds of dairy associations existed. Mass-produced rennet began in the 1860s. By the turn of the century, scientists were producing pure microbial cultures. Previously, bacteria in cheese was derived from the environment or from recycling an earlier batch's whey. Pure cultures meant a standardized cheese could be produced. The mass production of cheese made it readily available to the poorer classes. Therefore, simple cost-effective storage solutions for cheese gained popularity. Ceramic cheese dishes, or cheese bells, became one of the most common ways to prolong the life of cheese in the home. It remained popular in most households until the introduction of the home refrigerator in 1913.<ref>{{cite web|title=Barfly Retro Fridge History|url=http://www.barfly.ca/english/history.html|access-date=26 September 2013}}</ref> Factory-made cheese overtook traditional cheese-making during the [[World War II]] era. Since then, factories have been the source of most cheese in America and Europe. Today, Americans buy more [[processed cheese]] than "real", factory-made cheese.<ref>{{cite book | author=McGee, Harold | title=On Food and Cooking | publisher=Scribner | year=2004 | isbn=0-684-80001-2 |page=54 |quote=In the United States, the market for process cheese [...] is now larger than the market for 'natural' cheese, which itself is almost exclusively factory-made.| edition=Revised }}</ref> ==See also== {{portal|Food|History}} * [[Food history]] * [[List of ancient dishes|List of ancient dishes and foods]] * [[List of cheeses]] * [[List of European cheeses with protected geographical status]] * [[Cheesemaking]] ==References== {{Reflist|30em}} {{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Cheese}} [[Category:Cheese]] [[Category:History of food and drink|Cheese]]'