Today we take a moment to pay tribute to that much beloved, often taken for grated.....ooops, sorry, taken for granted, sometimes beautiful, sometimes unbearable odiferous friend of nearly everyone's - cheese.
While there is no solid evidence of where cheese-making originated, humans likely developed cheese by accident while transporting and storing milk in bladders, the enzymes of which would encourage curdling. Cuneiform texts dating back to the early second millennium BC show that cheese was already well-known among the Sumerians at the time.
And shards of holed pottery, showing direct evidence of cheese-making, have been found in Poland and Switzerland dating back 8,000 years.
In the America's, the conquistadors reported that the Inca were making cheese from llama's milk.
In Asia, preserved cheese dating to 1615 BC has been found in he Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang, China.
Cheese is generally classified by its milk (cows, goats, sheep, buffalo or a combination thereof), its country of origin, age, texture (from soft to hard.....), flavor (mild to extra sharp) and, finally, its preparation.
By some estimates, there are more than 1,800 different types of cheese in the world. For those who are interested, wikipedia gives a very comprehensive country-by-country listing here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cheeses
But these many varied cheeses can generally be broken down into seven types:
1) Fresh (no rind):
Bright white, mild, lemony or lactic with just a hint of the potential flavor of the milk. Some are wrapped in chestnut leaves, rolled in ash or covered in herbs.
2) Aged Fresh Cheese (wrinkled white to grey-blue rind):
Usually made from goats’ milk, that have been allowed to grow a thin almost transparent rind. As the cheese shrinks the pinky-white rind wrinkles and a dusting of blue grey mould develops. If allowed to dry out the wrinkles become crevasses, the blue mould darkens, the interior becomes almost brittle and the flavor intense and very goaty.
3) Soft White Rind (White Fuzzy Rind):
These grow a fine white crusty rind of penicillin candidum mould, which helps ripen the cheese and prevents the soft, voluptuous interior from drying out.
4) Semi-soft (Fine to thick grey-brown rind or orange & sticky):
Some, like Edam, have a barely formed rind and are generally mild, buttery and sweet. Those with a thicker, mould-encrusted rind are denser and taste stronger, more earthy. Some are repeatedly 'washed ' in brine, which encourages the orange, sticky, bacteria to develop. The result is a feisty, pungent flavor and aroma.
5) Hard (crusty, grey often polished, waxed or oiled):
Hard cheeses are pressed for hours or even weeks to remove the whey and compact the curd. Since they have a low moisture content they take longer to mature and are typically more complex and stronger in flavor.
6) Blue (gritty, rough, sometimes sticky rind):
Blue penicillium mould is sprinkled into the vat before the milk has curdled then the curd is cut, piled into moulds and drained. The spicy taste is due to the reaction between the curds and the blue mould as they age together.
7) Flavor added:
Hard cheeses to which a variety of flavors like nuts, fruit or herbs are added. Examples are Gouda with Cumin, Lancashire with Chives and Pecorino with Truffles.
The most expensive cheese in the world, sold for as much as $1,300 per kilogram, is said to be Pule, a Serbian cheese made from 60% Balkan donkey milk and 40% goats milk.
It is so expensive because of its difficulty to produce, and its rarity: there are only about 100 female Balkan donkeys (jennies) that are milked for Pule-making and it takes 25 litres (6.5 gallons) of milk to create one kilogram (about 2 lb's) of cheese.
And while we are all familiar with having cheese and crackers with wine and cocktails, some innovative bartenders have found ways to manipulate cheeses into liquid forms to use in cocktails. At Coupette in London they feature a house-made parmigian liqueur in its Ain’t Being Cheesy cocktail. At Two Schmucks in Barcelona they work with a variety of cheeses in drinks. Most notably in their Melon, Cheese & Pepper cocktail.
Finally, no tribute to cheese would be complete without a mention of the cheese capital of the United States, the state of Wisconsin. In 2019 Wisconsin led the nation in cheese production with over three billion pounds produced. This is where residents of the state get their, mostly proud nickname of "Cheese Heads" from.
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