Thursday, February 11, 2016

Medieval Cheesemaking: Say "Cheese!"

In my current manuscript, affectionately working-titled, "Vika and Grimr's Story," my heroine is in need of a quick means of sustenance to gather for an unannounced journey she is set upon taking. She decides upon a bit of cheese.

This got me thinking about cheese and its history. What was cheese actually like in the 13th century, for example? Grana, Gorgonzola, and Roquefort were all recorded as being first made in the years between 879 AD and 1200 AD.

On my quest to find a few more answers, I stumbled upon this little gem, A Brief History of Cheese, on the Gode Cookery website, and thought I would share it:

“ ... Most authorities consider that cheese was first made in the Middle East. The earliest type was a form of sour milk which came into being when it was discovered that domesticated animals could be milked. A legendary story has it that cheese was 'discovered' by an unknown Arab nomad. He is said to have filled a saddlebag with milk to sustain him on a journey across the desert by horse. After several hours riding he stopped to quench his thirst, only to find that the milk had separated into a pale watery liquid and solid white lumps. Because the saddlebag, which was made from the stomach of a young animal, contained a coagulating enzyme known as rennin, the milk had been effectively separated into curds and whey by the combination of the rennin, the hot sun and the galloping motions of the horse. The nomad, unconcerned with technical details, found the whey drinkable and the curds edible.

Cheese was known to the ancient Sumerians four thousand years before the birth of Christ. The ancient Greeks credited Aristaeus, a son of Apollo and Cyrene, with its discovery; it is mentioned in the Old Testament.

In the Roman era cheese really came into its own. Cheesemaking was done with skill and knowledge and reached a high standard. By this time the ripening process had been developed and it was known that various treatments and conditions under storage resulted in different flavours and characteristics.

The larger Roman houses had a separate cheese kitchen, the caseale, and also special areas where cheese could be matured. In large towns home-made cheese could be taken to a special centre to be smoked. Cheese was served on the tables of the nobility and traveled to the far corners of the Roman Empire as a regular part of the rations of the legions.

During the Middle Ages, monks became innovators and developers and it is to them we owe many of the classic varieties of cheese marketed today. During the Renaissance period cheese suffered a drop in popularity, being considered unhealthy, but it regained favour by the nineteenth century, the period that saw the start of the move from farm to factory production.

Widcome, Richard. The Cheese Book. Seacaucus: Chartwell Books, 1978.

Be sure to visit the original version of this page at Gode Cookery


  1. I so love your books, and interesting about cheese. How it dropped in popularity.

    1. Thank you, Kimi! Interestingly, I'm a HUGE cheese lover, lol! (Maybe that's another subconscious reason Vika takes some with her. ;))


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