Cheddar, Mozzarella, Gruyere, Blue, Feta, Gorgonzola, cheese is a fundemental ingredient in many cuisines. Cheese is very versatile (almost a bit too versatile, in the case of Easy Cheese or Cheez Whiz) and one of the oldest fermented foods ever. So today, we’re going to take a look at this overlooked food item and see where it comes from.
Cheese was made by herding peoples since they would rely on diary products from sheep and goats. Sheep were one of the first animals to be domesticated as they require very little food or water and are easy to breed and herd. Similarly, goats can follow behing you on many paths, making them ideal for moving around. The Proto-Indo-Europeans, who lived in the Eurasian Steppe, stretching from Ukraine to Mongolia, were one of the main herding people in the Early Bronze Age, and were one of the first cheese-makers. Cheese making is facilitated by an enzyme called rennet, which is found in sheep and cow stomachs, so there are many Egyptian stories of how traders first found cheese by carrying milk in sheep-stomach bags. However, the earliest known evidence of cheese-making, which were remains of pots with rennet and milk proteins, were found in Poland and Croatia, where Indo-Europeans would have migrated to in the Bronze Age.
The Greeks loved cheese. In fact, so did the Egyptians. And the rest of the Mediterranean, so much that cheese is still a staple in those parts today. While meat was for kings and nobles, cheese was renewable and required only an animal for many years, so it was a nutritious and cheap alternative to meat. Cheese was extremely popular and from then it diversified. As cows became more common and sheep and goats became sidelined, different varieties and ages of cheese started.
Anay Ganesh 