Making cheese has changed over time. Here's a quick look at the past.
Because there are so many kinds of cheese, there is something for every taste. Most people think that cheese was made for the first time in the Middle East. A story says that a nomadic Arab made cheese by accident when milk in his saddlebag turned sour because of the hot sun and the movement of his horse as it galloped.
Cheeses from the past were not as solid as the cheeses we eat today. They were just curds and whey, like what Little Miss Muffet ate. The solid part is the curd, and the liquid part is the whey.
Egyptian hieroglyphs show people at work making cheese. In the past, people ate the whey right away, while the curd was salted or dried to keep it fresh. The Roman Legion helped people in Europe and England learn how to make cheese. During the Middle Ages, monasteries and feudal estates in Europe made big changes to how cheese was made. Monks came up with many of the classic types of cheese that people enjoy today. During the Renaissance, cheese became less popular because people thought it was bad for them. By the 1800s, people's attitudes had changed, and cheese was made in factories instead of on farms. In the early days of cheese, no one could have thought that people would buy cheese online today.
Most cheeses are now made in large quantities, but some artisanal cheeses are still made by hand using old methods. When you buy cheese online, you can work directly with the people who make it.
How cheese is made in the modern world
Cow, goat, sheep, and even buffalo milk can be used to make cheese. In order to make natural cheese, the milk must be curdled so that it separates into curds and whey. Modern methods for making cheese use a starter, which is a bacterial culture that makes lactic acid, and rennet, which is an enzyme that speeds up the process of liquids and solids separating. Depending on the type of cheese being made, different types of bacteria are used.
Fresh cheeses that haven't aged yet, like cottage cheese, are the least complicated kinds of cheese you can buy. These are made by heating milk and letting it sit for a while. Then, a lactic starter is added to help the acid develop, and the whey is drained. It is eaten right away. This is cheese in its most basic form.
Bacterial cultures are used to lower the pH or make the cheese more acidic in cheeses that are more complicated. It is important to make the right amount of acid, or else the texture of the cheese will be bad. At this point, the cheese will start to solidify and separate into curds and whey. By adding rennet, the process goes better.
The curd is then heated and cut, which lets the whey out. Before the curd is salted, shaped, and pressed, it gets hard. The cheese will then be aged or ripened for different amounts of time, depending on the type. Bacteria are still growing in the cheese, which is changing the taste and texture.
During the ripening process, cheese rinds often form on their own. The main job of the rind is to keep the inside of the cheese safe while letting it ripen evenly. It does change how the cheese tastes in the end. Every kind of cheese you can buy on the market has been made in some way similar to this.
