Cheesemaking a 8000 year old recipe

Introduction

I remember a certain day in middle school. It was a History lesson, and like all kids that age you believe everything the books say and what the teacher declares, you follow in blind faith, and never questioning cause you want that A -grade.

It was a history lesson about a man crossing the desert, and while he was walking he had a pouch full of goat milk and it turned into cheese.
"Making Cheese was a new invention, only a few hundreds years old"
I believed it like all the others, never questioning.
She didnt lie, she believed the stories like everyone else.

The truth is something else, its not a fantastic story nor a riddle, its not made of magic nor dragons, the truth is there never was a man crossing the desert to escape his captivators and his pouch of goat milk turned into cheese which he traded for something else.

Stories are a part of our society and one of the keystones of building it, but you cant build something real on a lie and tell everyone else is mad.
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History

Man has been making and eating cheese for more than 8,000 years. A Parmesan cheese factory in San Giovanni in Persiceto, The first cheese making factory in Northern Europe, was dated around the 6th millennium BC.

Traces of dairy fat in ancient ceramic fragments suggest that people have been making cheese in Europe for up to 7,500 years. In the tough days before refrigerators, early dairy farmers probably devised cheese-making as a way to preserve, and get the best use out of, milk from the cattle that they had begun to herd.

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Cheesemaking

Cheesemaking may have originated from nomadic herdsmen who stored milk in vessels made from the sheep's and goats' stomachs. Because their stomach linings contains a mix of lactic acid, wild bacteria as milk contaminants and rennet, the milk would ferment and coagulate. A product reminiscent of yogurt would have been produced, which, through gentle agitation and the separation of curds from whey would have resulted in the production of cheese; the cheese being essentially a concentration of the major milk protein, casein, and milk fat. The whey proteins, other minor milk proteins, and the lactose are all removed in the cheese whey.

Making Cheese the old fashion way

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Source

Cheesemaking
Nature

Thanks for the history and video.

I have made goat cheese and yogurt. It's such an easy process really. I like to buy the White Mountain organic Bulgarian yogurt and strain through a fine natural cloth. My favorite cloths for straining are flour sack cloth towels at Walmart in the kitchen towel section. Lay that in a mesh strainer and pour the yogurt. Fold the edges over to cover the yogurt and leave over a bowl just a bit smaller than the the strainer. You can save the whey for smoothies if you like. Dogs and kitties love it over their food, or straight up in their bowl. Let it drain till it's as thick as you'd like it. Add whatever herbs, or spices and refrigerate. It makes a great spread. Mix in some honey. So much you can do that taste so good and you don't need to own a cow, or a goat.

That person was obviously not well educated on the history of cheeses. A few hundred years old? That is just ridiculous. Pecorino romana was given daily to the legionaries over 2000 years ago to help balance there diet. Cheese is ancient.

originally posted by: TheAlleghenyGentleman
Cheese is ancient.

It's been said cheese, bread, and beer are among the first human inventions

a reply to: tikbalang

We make milk and fermented nut cheeses on our homestead, I appreciate your thread friend.

So you claim to say the myth is false yet show no evidence of something different. Cheese had to come from somewhere by accident. Somone didn't come out one day to their dairy animal and say "I will condense your milk into a solid form out of your stomach."

Something very close to the original story had to happen. A man who wanted to carry his milk, that man put the milk into an easily made container (stomach,) and the milk coagulated into what we call curds.

It's not exactly rocket science or fantasy.

a reply to: TheLotLizard

Its a fermentation process, oldest known fish fermentation process is 9200 years old..
Im probably gonna say;" Salt and fish lead to cheese "

a reply to: tikbalang

I work for a cheese company. Thanks for the thread. I wil read it today.

originally posted by: tikbalang
a reply to: TheLotLizard

Its a fermentation process, oldest known fish fermentation process is 9200 years old..
Im probably gonna say;" Salt and fish lead to cheese "

It is not a fermentation process to obtain cheese as rennet is an enzyme and not a bacteria. Now curing cheese is a fermentation process. The actual turning milk into cheese is not.

a reply to: TheLotLizard

They knew 8000 years ago what an enzyme was, they still fermented it.

originally posted by: tikbalang
a reply to: TheLotLizard

They knew 8000 years ago what an enzyme was, they still fermented it.

If you think they knew what caused separation of curds and whey 8000 years ago you're delusional.

a reply to: TheLotLizard

They didnt, Cheesemaking may have originated from nomadic herdsmen who stored milk in vessels made from the sheep's and goats' stomachs. Because their stomach linings contains a mix of lactic acid, wild bacteria as milk contaminants and rennet, the milk would ferment and coagulate.

Yay! Or you could have followed the links provided