We are surrounded by many things that we take for granted. If we stop to think about it though, even simple everyday things have a history; some a longer one, others a more recent one; in some cases, an intriguing turn of events, other times just a trivial story of necessity.

Cheese certainly fits the first option as it’s something that we are all familiar with yet has been around for so long that nobody even knows exactly when it first appeared. With regard to the second point, some would say that it’s a matter of opinion how interesting the story of cheese is, however, as someone once said, it’s the way I tell’em!

The Early Days

As just alluded to, no one can put a precise date on when cheese was first discovered. There are however ways of delving into the past in order to get at least some information about when cheese got started.

One method is to look at the written record. One of the earliest forms of writing is attributed to the Sumerians. They developed a system of wedges which were used to stamp letters into clay tablets. As they were one of the first civilizations to have a writing system, they are also one of the oldest sources of written records (logical that one!).

Interestingly, cheese is mentioned in their literature and thus, as they began writing around 5000 years ago, we can conclude that even at this stage in history cheese of some description was known and used (in the Sumerian’s case a lot of cheese seemed to go towards pacifying the Gods, which is of course a little different to its main use today!).

Another main method to look at the origins of cheese is to use archaeology. The techniques of processing milk, however simple they may have been, have left traces which can now be discovered by using modern technology.

Bits of broken pottery with holes in have been found, for example, in Poland. Obviously, having holes in your pottery makes it less than ideal for use as a storage container, but by analysing the resin left on the clay surface, using high powered techniques, scientist have been able to identify milk fat suggesting that these pieces of wholey pottery were used as strainers to separate the curd from the whey in heated milk. These pieces of clay are thousands of years old, meaning that some sort of cheese making was going on in ancient Poland!

One other notable piece of cheese archaeology is the discover in ancient Egyptian tombs of solidified substances that under analyse have been shown to be cheese (and you thought your left-over Parmesan was going pretty hard!).

Hearsay

Another way to find out about the past is oral tradition. In many cultures, especially before the advent of writing, but even after due to the lack of literacy or available writing materials (biros weren’t always around!) important information has often been passed from generation to generation by word of mouth.

There are many stories about the origins of cheese, both generally and relating to particular cheeses, that have arrived with us by this method. One such of these, comes from an Arab legend that cheese was first discovered by an Arab traveller who filled an animal’s stomach with milk for safe keeping on a journey. When the traveller arrived at their destination, they emptied out the contents of the stomach, surprised to find that the milk inside had been churned on the journey together with the effects of an enzyme from the stomach’s wall (not that they would have known about enzymes in those days of course!), resulting in the formation of a basic cheese.

It is hard to believe that cheese was discovered in this way as old, spoiled milk separates out into liquid and solid, so it wouldn’t have been hard for the ancients to have realised that this was the first step to making cheese, but nevertheless it makes for a nice story.

Nitty Gritty

If we really want to get to the bottom of the history of cheese, it is necessary to start looking at the more detailed written sources. This of course means that the origins of cheese are mysterious as the ancients had other things to write about than the discovery of their favourite food products, but on the other hand there is plenty of solid information a bit further on in history.

The Romans had a well-developed society, which included then the beginnings of serious historical writing. Alongside their many battles and Caesar’s antics and so on, there are even books (or at least parts of books) talking about cheese. A famous example is Pliny’s Natural History which has two chapters talking about cheese.

The Bible is another interesting ancient writing which mentions cheese (indeed in the Old Testament, so showing that cheese has been around for a long time). This is discussed more here.

Moving Along

After the Romans, came the dark ages, so as you might expect, not much good cheese information from this period. However, eventually we reach the middle ages when things start to pick up.

Many of today’s household names in cheese are mentioned in this era. Cheddar in 1500 A.D. and Parmesan in 1597 A.D. for example. These mentions often coming in documents to do with trading or as a result of books which started to become more widely written and spread in this time due to the invention of the printing press and other technological improvements.

That’s All for Now

In another article there would be much to be said about how cheese progressed from these times till modern day. For now, though, we will leave things here, having seen that although cheese is something simple that most of us take for granted, actually there is much to be said and learnt from exploring its origins.

So next time you bite into your favourite cheese, don’t forget that it’s not there by chance, but rather much toil and history has probably gone into providing you with such a tasty morsel!

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-africa-45233347
http://scienceinpoland.pap.pl/en/node/21948
Oxford cheese companion, p. 528
Arab Cheese legend