CHEESE

The production of cheese predates recorded history, beginning well over 7,000 years ago.Humans likely developed cheese and other dairy foods by accident, as a result of storing and transporting milk in bladders made of ruminants’ stomachs, as their inherent supply of rennet would encourage curdling. There is no conclusive evidence indicating where cheese-making originated, possibly Europe. The ancient Greeks and Romans knew and valued cheese, as did early people in northern Europe. Methods for cheese making have often been kept secret. The first factory for the industrial production of cheese opened in Switzerland in 1815. Cheese, nutritious food consisting primarily of the curd, the semisolid substance formed when milk curdles, or coagulates. Curdling occurs naturally if milk is not used promptly: it sours, forming an acid curd, which releases whey, a watery fluid containing the soluble constituents and it leaves semisolid curd, or fresh cheese