Cheese-making equipment has been found in Europe and Egypt dating as far back as 3,000 BC, though many believe cheese may go back as far as 10,000 BC when animals were first domesticated by man. According to historical resources, goat cheese is said to be the earliest dairy product of man. It was the first time man was able to turn highly perishable milk into a form that could be stored. Cheese finds mention in accounts of the Sumerians, and also in the Old Testament.
There are virtually hundreds of cheese varieties produced around the world. And each prides itself in having its own distinctive taste and delicate properties. This range of tastes, flavours, and textures is due to variations in the kind of milk used, whether or not it was pasteurized, its specific fat content, the kind of micro-organisms used in the coagulation process, the various methods of processing which includes the methods of curing and aging. Particular varieties also emerged with the use of condiments, spices and smoking.
The largest worldwide producers of cheese are the Americans, who eat over 4.2 million tons of cheese per year, followed by the Germans (2.0 million tons) and the French (1.9 million tons). And it is surprisingly the Greeks, and not the French or the Germans, who are the largest consumers, averaging about 27.3 kilograms per year per person.
The process of cheese-making itself varies from region to region, and from one type to another. The one basic process is curdling, which splits the milk into solidified curds and a thin watery whey. While in some cheeses the milk is directly acidified using vinegar, a starter bacteria culture is usually used in the early stages.
Acidic coagulation usually produces a runny and thin cheese. Some varieties of cheese also use an enzyme called rennet to set the cheese into a stronger, more rubbery constitution. The main part of the flavour of your delicious cheese, however, comes from the processing of the curds. Fresh cheese is simply allowed to drain off, only needing salting and appropriate packaging before it reaches your breakfast table. But harder cheeses are heated to firm up the cheese and change its chemistry ever so slightly to give it a unique taste. Cheese is cured with salt, which is a preservative and removes moisture.
Further processing methods are used to further modify the taste and texture of the cheese-stretching and kneading the cheese is warm water (as is done to Mozzarella); chedduring, or piling up the curds to further remove the moisture and firm up the cheese; and washing in warm water to reduce its acidity. While the cheese at hand now is edible, it is bland in flavor except for its saltiness.
This cheese must now be aged to give it its flavor. The world's most famous cheeses, whether they are hard or soft, are aged for anything from a few days to whole years. The Greek feta is aged for about 203 months, while the iconic Emmentaler from Switzerland is matured for up to a year. The enzymes already present in the cheese strengthen the flavor and give it a more expressive and distinguishing texture.
One of the major changes in the tradition and the history of cheese-making was wrought by the advent of the process of pasteurization and new techniques to check pH levels in milk through the process, thus reducing wastage and enabling mass production. World War II saw the end of small dairy-farmers and their cheese-making facilities as large scale industrial production gradually took over their limited, provincial markets. Of late, however, a desire among connoisseurs for a flavor more subtle than that of mass produced cheese has prompted the revival and return of the specialist cheese-makers.
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