Cheese is a food that has been around for thousands of years. It is a great way of making milk last longer and is a useful food source because it is rich in protein, fat and calcium.

The first evidence of cheese making dates back to well before recorded history.

It is possible that cheese was discovered by accident because animal intestines were a useful vessel for carrying food in. When milk was stored in the stomach of an animal, the naturally occurring rennet would have separated it into curds and whey – the curds being the solid that is the cheese. Salting the curds would help preserve it.

Goats and sheep were domesticated around 8000 BCE and there is evidence that dairying occurred in Egypt around 3100 BCE and Egyptian tomb murals from around 2000 BCE showed people making cheese. These early products are probably most similar to feta and sour and salty in taste.

Cheese making was certainly in Europe during the Roman Empire and widely imported. Because the European climate is cooler, less salt is required to preserve it and so more delicate flavours can be produced. Strong flavours can be produced with the aid of microbes which give the mould associated with blue cheeses. Again, these microbes need cooler temperatures.

The first cheeses were probably made from the milk of sheep and goats but today cow’s milk is more commonly used.

At one time, Europeans saw cheese as food for peasants and it would not have been seen on the tables of noblemen but as time went by it became a desirable food and artisans produced some very fine examples of it.

Cheese varieties are now very varied and range from soft cheeses to hard cheeses. Some are notable for being a very acquired taste. Stinking Bishop is one such cheese and as the name suggests it is on the smelly side but actually very nice. The most shocking one is probably the infamous Caza Marzu which is a speciality of Sardinia, Italy. It is a variety of pecorino that is left for the cheese fly Piophila Casei to lay eggs in. These eggs then hatch into maggots and help produce the final cheese. Not everyone likes to eat live maggots and so the Caza Marzu can be left in a bag to suffocate the maggots.

A modern twist on cheese is processed cheese – a variety favoured by burger chains. Processed cheese is made using regular cheese but emulsifiers, salt, colouring and whey are added to make it last longer. It isn’t classed as cheese in some countries because of food regulations and so it is called things such as cheese spread or cheese food.