History of cheese production
Cheese has been produced since ancient times in almost all parts of the world. It used to be the main food. It was produced from the milk of cows, sheep, goats, buffalo, and even from the milk of rooms in Lapland and strong milk in Nepal. The long list of international cheeses includes: Swiss Emmentaler, French Camembert, and Brie, Roquefort, Italian Gorgonzola, Bel Paese, Parmesan - Grana, Greek Feta and many others.
Once cheese was a gift to the gods or food of the privileged class, and in the Middle Ages it became the daily food of the general population.
Cheese is a product of a certain country and people, a product whose origin and production are conditioned by climate, vegetation and other factors. The method of cheese preparation is specific to each individual country, even area, depending on the climate and market requirements. Cheese production developed from domestic handicrafts to industry, and the quantities of cheese produced reached limits of hitherto unimaginable proportions.
Types of cheese
Many famous cheeses, national specialties, have become world-famous cheeses. A successful combination of skilled crafts and industry has resulted in the production of high quality cheeses that can be transported over long distances without much loss of original quality. There are also large quantities of cheese produced in rural households and can never reach large markets from idyllic lowland or mountainous and alpine landscapes.
Over a thousand types of cheese are known, but only 18 different types are significant. Many types of cheese are named after the place of origin and differ only in the shape and type of equipment, and the production methods and main characteristics are often very similar.
Cheese, as an everyday food, is especially important in some areas. In France it is Brie, Camembert, Cantal, Provence, etc., in England it is among others Cheddar or Cheshire, Cambridge, in the USA Cheddar, in Denmark it is Samsoe, Dambo or Finbo, in the Netherlands Gouda, Edam, in Mexico Queso Fresco, in Italy Parmesan, Romano, Asago, etc.
Development of cheese production
Knowledge about the beginning of cheese production is based on archaeological discoveries. The first pictorial representation originates from Mesopotamia. The relief of Ubaida shows the milking of Sumerian cows and the process with milk. In Egypt, in the tomb of Horushach, the second king of the first dynasty (3000-2800 BC), the first signs appear indicating the processing of milk into cheese, and there are records in hieroglyphic texts. Cave drawings from the Libyan Saliara (5500-2000 BC) reveal knowledge of milk processing and are very similar to those from Spain and France. The question is still open, did people really live on that soil in prehistory? It has not been established whether Asia is the true homeland of dairy farming, and Africa is just a place where people came with their herd bringing this knowledge. Probably the Sahara was not a real desert at the time. According to some records, it is possible that Indo-Europeans transmitted their knowledge of cheese to Europe, although the Basque-Indo-European race on the continent had a word for cheese and whey.
It is certain that perforated vessels from the Bronze Age (3000-1000 BC) were used to make cheese. In the midst of the development of Greece and the Roman Empire, cheese was a well-known everyday food, and in the whole territory under Roman rule. It is known that the cattle were kept in the Indus Valley in Asia, but there is no information about the husband, and the cattle in the drawings have very few udders.
Later, the cattle were moved to the Ganges Valley, and the milk was used only by Indo-European settlers. According to early records, that part of Asia never became a dairy region, and milk and dairy products never became daily food because of the customs of the Brahmanical and Buddhist religions.
In some parts of the world, milk was not used for religious reasons, as it was considered a sin to take milk from cubs. Many did not accept the taste and smell of milk. Over time, the boundaries between the areas where milk was used and those where milk was left to the cubs disappeared. Human migrations and human interactions have paved the way for the expansion of milk production and processing.
Archaeological excavations cannot determine exactly how and why the cheese first appeared, but it can be established that the processing of milk into cheese appeared very quickly where the cattle milk. Originally they were fresh cheeses, made by spontaneous acidification of milk. Cyril was discovered much later. There is a well-known story about an Arab who traveled the desert and saw that the milk he carried with him coagulated faster and better in a dried sheep’s stomach than usual. From then until today, the technology of rennet preparation has been perfected.
By removing moisture, hard cheeses are created that are more durable, especially if dried and salted. This way of processing seems to come from nomads and cheese traders. These insights have been passed down through tradition and perfected. Numerous, different types of cheese were already available in the markets of Rome: soft, fresh, hard, made from sheep's, goat's or cow's milk.
With the penetration of Christianity, monasteries became centers of culture, with people cultivating fields, keeping cattle and producing cheeses. Even today, famous cheeses, like Trappist, date from that period. Since then, cheese production has developed very rapidly, especially at the time of the development of large cities.
Discoveries in the field of bacteriology, chemistry and technology have enabled the rapid modernization of this branch. Justus von Liebig established in 1836 that the fermentation of cheese could be explained in a scientific sense. Louis Pasteur applied his discovery of vaccine fermentation to lactic sugar fermentation, and Leah Metchnikov studied lactic acid bacteria, fermentation, and pasteurization of milk. A period of great discoveries in the field of biochemistry followed, and cultures of microorganisms and rennet began to be produced in the laboratory.
