always made from milk, is in other respects of great variety. Its taste may be almost imperceptible, as in some fresh cream cheese, or very strong, as in the most aged blue cheeses. The texture, which depends largely on water content, can be virtually liquid, as in a ripe Brie, or dry and friable, as in many kinds of grating cheeses. The fat content ranges from 1% (Schabziger) to 75% (the richest cream cheeses such as Brillat-Savarin).
Size also varies greatly. Some tiny goat's milk cheeses weigh less than 25 gm (1 oz), a mere five-thousandth of the 130 kg (290 lb) of certain cheeses of the Gruyère family; and this is without counting freaks such as the 1,250 lb (567 kg) Cheddar cheese made in 1840 by a group of Somerset farmers as a wedding present for Queen Victoria. In 1964 the weight record was taken by an American Cheddar over 28 times as large made in Wisconsin, America's chief milk-producing area. It weighed 15,190 kg (34,591 lb) and took 43 hours to make, even with the benefit of modern machinery.
Some cheeses are made fresh daily and used at once: for example fromage blanc and fresh ricotta (see also whey cheeses). Parmesan and other types of grana may be aged for four years; the record age for an individual cheese, 200 years, goes to the hard Swiss cheese Saanen. In France alone there are 324 (General de Gaulle speaking to Winston Churchill) or 450 (conventional reckonings by French experts) or 750 (Rance, 1989) named varieties of cheese; and the total worldwide must be over 1,500—without counting many nameless types made by small farmers and herdsmen.
Cheese is also one of the oldest of made foods, dating back to the prehistoric beginnings of herding. As with all fermented products, it seems likely that the discovery of cheese was accidental. It could be that the curdling action of rennet was noticed when a herdsman poured milk into a pouch made of an animal's stomach. The numerous kinds of bacteria which invade milk products are common in all parts of the world. Once any kind of cheese had been formed by chance, its owner would have observed not only that the taste was pleasant but that it kept well—always a problem with milk products—and even kept hard and dry.
The earliest records of milking, some cave paintings in the Libyan Sahara dating from 5000 bc or before, show what might be cheese-making; and the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians certainly made cheese. Traces of actual cheese have been found in an Egyptian tomb of about 3000 bc. And there is no doubt that cheese was familiar in pre-classical Greece, as we know from Homer's description of Circe serving cheese to Odysseus, and was a staple food of classical Greece and Rome.
The history of cheese-making after the fall of the Roman Empire is more obscure, but it clearly continued and re-emerged in the Middle Ages as a familiar and important food. The first printed cookery book appeared in 1475. The first printed book on the subject of cheese, the famous Summa Lacticiniorum (see Irma Naso, 1990) was published only two years later and was the earliest of what would now be called single-subject food books. It was the first of many (for a very few of which see Reading, below, and entries for individual cheeses).
Cheese is commonly made from cow's, sheep's, goat's, and water-buffalo's milk. The more exotic kinds of milk, such as mare's and camel's, are largely reserved for other kinds of milk product, although it is possible to make cheese from the latter and cheese is certainly made from reindeer's milk.
From a nutritional point of view, cheese is a most valuable food, concentrating as it does most of the nourishment of the milk. The solids extracted from milk to make cheese contain virtually all the fat and fat-soluble vitamins, most of the proteins, and a fair amount of the minerals. Left behind in the whey are almost all of the sugar, some protein, and the water-soluble vitamins and minerals. (Whey itself may be concentrated to make whey cheeses.)
The virtues of cheese are not, however, limited to being wholesome and nutritious; the sensory experiences which it offers provide an important field in which food connoisseurs can show their paces.
Since there are so many types of cheese it is impossible to give an account of how a ‘typical cheese’ is made; the following descriptions simply set out some of the commoner processes. Some cheeses which are made in exceptional ways are described under their individual names.
In most cheeses the first stage is to ‘ripen’ the milk by letting lactic acid-producing bacteria sour it; this develops flavour which will be apparent in the finished product. In primitive cheese-making the bacteria were left to chance. Most modern cheese is made from pasteurized milk, virtually free of bacteria, to which selected cultures are added. For example, Swiss cheeses such as Gruyère and Emmental, whose manufacture is rigidly controlled, depend on a culture of Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, and Propionibacterium shermani. The most significant flavourings produced by these three are respectively (and to simplify greatly) diacetyl for a ‘buttery’ taste, lactic acid for sharpness, and propionic acid for the characteristic ‘Swiss’ flavour. The propionic bacteria also give off carbon dioxide gas which forms the bubbles that appear as ‘eyes’ in the cheese. Milk is kept fairly warm during ripening to encourage the bacteria to grow.
The next step, almost invariably, is to set the curd; i.e. to extract the solid component of the milk. Usually rennet is used; vegetarian cheeses and some minor varieties (see caciotta; pecorino) may be curdled with vegetable extracts. For a general description of this process, see curdling. The casein fraction of the proteins coagulates and shrinks, trapping the fat globules and forcing out the whey. The milk is kept at a temperature near blood heat while it separates.
Once the curd has formed it is worked in one way or another to produce the characteristic texture of the particular type of cheese. For the very softest types of French cheese it is simply lifted from the whey with a perforated ladle and set in perforated tin hoops or other forms and allowed to drain by the force of gravity. But for most cheeses, which are harder, the curd is cut up or even passed through a mill or shredded with a wire ‘harp’ to break it down into grains. This both helps the drainage of whey and determines the size of the grains or flakes which are discernible in many hard cheeses, especially English ones. In ‘cheddaring’, the method by which Cheddar and many related hard cheeses are made, the cut curd is stacked in a tall pile to force out whey, and then milled to break the grains down to a small size. Some American cheeses such as ‘washed curd’, ‘stirred curd’, and ‘granular’ types, as well as other kinds of softer than normal Cheddar, are given less drastic treatments so that more moisture is left in the curd. Salt may be added now or later.
At this point, some cheeses, including Emmental, Gruyère, grana, and other compact, even-textured types, are scalded at temperatures up to 57 °C (134 °F)—not quite hot enough to coagulate the protein (60 °C/140 °F). For different reasons, much higher temperatures are used in whey cheeses and Schabziger, where coagulation is necessary. These cheeses are called ‘cooked’ or ‘semi-cooked’, depending on the degree of heating. The effect is to shrink the grains and consolidate the texture. Despite the heat, at least some of the bacteria survive to develop flavour in the finished cheese.
One important variant of the cooking process is the pasta filata or ‘plastic curd’ process, used for Italian cheeses such as mozzarella, provolone, caciocavallo, and its relations such as kashkaval. Here the curd is immersed in hot water at about 60 °C (140 °F), which causes it to soften and become pliable. It is then repeatedly pulled out into long, thick strands, by hand or machine. The curd achieves a putty-like consistency which allows it to be moulded to any shape.
Next, the curd is formed into cheeses. Forms vary greatly in size and shape. Sometimes they are lined with cloth bandages to help the cheese retain its shape when it is removed. There is still some whey in the curd: the form is perforated to allow drainage. Some primitive forms are or were made of coiled straw—though the basketwork pattern on the pecorino or Manchego cheese is today more likely to be the result of a stamped metal form. The pressure on the cheese in its form may be as great as a ton and a half for a full-size Cheddar.
Some blue cheeses including Roquefort are inoculated with a culture of blue mould at the forming stage. Stilton is inoculated after forming; other English blue types such as Cheshire and Wensleydale are allowed to become infected by their surroundings.
A formed cheese, once it is stiff enough to remove, is now usually salted if salt has not been added already. Salt may be rubbed on the outside, or the cheese may be soaked in brine for hours or days. ‘Pickled’ cheeses such as feta are kept in a mixture of brine and whey for long periods. The salty exterior of the cheese represses the growth of unwanted micro-organisms. Some cheeses such as Appenzell are marinated in alcohol, giving special flavours.
The final step is to mature the cheese. Times and conditions for this process vary greatly. Dry surroundings are necessary for cheeses which are to be hardened; a moist environment suits soft cheeses and promotes the growth of surface organisms (see below). Warmth speeds ripening. The longer-matured cheeses are generally kept cool. There may be successive stages of maturing in different conditions.
Two important classes of cheese are ripened largely by moulds, yeasts, and bacteria which invade them from the surface, and attention must be paid to the surface of each cheese to ensure that the desired species of micro-organisms grow on the surface and to the right extent. The curing rooms, called ‘cellars’, for traditionally made cheeses are, usually, naturally infected with the required organisms.
Brie, Camembert, and similar cheeses are ripened mainly by a white mould, Penicillium candidum, or a relative. This is inhibited by salting, but otherwise allowed to grow unchecked. The cheese, at first acid, dry, and hard, is softened by proteolytic (protein-breaking) enzymes released by the mould, which spread from the outside inward. That is why these cheeses are always made rather flat and thin.
The other class of surface-ripened cheeses receive a more catholic mixture of bacteria, yeasts, and to a small extent moulds. For example, Limburger is ripened largely by the bacterium Brevibacterium linens, which gives it its famous smell. The strong smell of many bacterial surface-ripened or ‘surface smear’ cheeses is in fact more or less confined to the surface; the inside is usually quite mild in aroma and flavour. Surface bacteria tend to grow too fast, and are kept in check by frequently washing or brushing.
Some cheeses show features of both the above classes, i.e. of the cheeses ripened by surface moulds and of the bacterial surface-ripened cheeses. They include quite large, hard and semi-hard cheeses such as the French tomme de Savoie (see tomme) which develops red, grey, and yellow patches of surface mould.
Other surface treatments include coating with soot or ash (said to slow maturation) or with leaves, or ‘marc’ residues (grape pips and skins left over from wine-making) to impregnate the cheese with their flavour.
However, many cheeses are matured without any surface treatment: Emmental, Edam, and Samsoe are examples. The surface is cleaned during maturing, and may be oiled, waxed, or varnished partly to keep it clean and partly to stop drying and shrinkage.
All through the maturing period and, ideally, during shipping and up to the moment of retail sale, a cheese is kept in an environment whose temperature and humidity favour its proper maturation.
A subject which has attracted relatively little attention from cookery writers, perhaps because dishes in which cheese is a principal ingredient (e.g. fondue, cheesecake, Welsh rabbit) are not numerous and cheese is more often eaten as a separate item or treated as a condiment or garnish (as in the use of Parmesan on pasta, or melting cheese on top of something as a finish).
However, so far as France is concerned (and with a look over the frontier to Switzerland, and some glances at other culinary cultures), there is the strikingly rich study by Peter Graham (1988), which shows that there are more examples of cheese cookery in the regions of France than one would suppose. To take one example, the Tourteau fromagé of Charente-Maritime, made in the traditional way, is an interesting dish made with (usually) goat cheese; it is cooked in two moules, one fitting tightly inside the other, and its pastry crust is burnt looking on the outside as a result of the very high heat employed.
Elsewhere the choice of a particular cheese for cooking depends largely on national or regional tastes and on what people think appropriate for their own cuisines: thus feta for Greek and haloumi for Lebanese dishes, and so on. But choice is also determined by questions of texture and of behaviour when heated.
A good melting cheese is high in fat and not too hard or dry. Thus low-fat, skimmed-milk cheeses do not melt well because they are relatively high in proteins which it is easy to coagulate (coagulation starts at about 60 °C/140 °F), causing stringiness or leatheriness. When melted cheese is required, the cheese should be heated only as much as is necessary to melt it. Some coagulation may be inevitable because of the nature of the cooking process; but use of a soft, moist cheese will postpone or avert the onset of stringiness.
One cheese which behaves well in many cooked dishes is Gruyère, the cheese of choice for a Gratin savoyard, the principal cheese for a classic fondue suisse (which will include two other cheeses, ideally Bagnes and vacherin fribourgeois), and for certain cheese soups in the Savoie, Jura, and Switzerland.
Soft cheeses with a very high water content, for example cream and curd cheeses, give a very tender texture, as required in cheesecake and Danish pastries.
Graham makes the interesting general point that the whole genre (‘evolved by generations of peasant cooks’) of starchy envelopes or bases (ravioli, pies, tarts) holding a cheese-flavoured filling or topping had the original function of eking out the cheese but has the bonus of providing new textural and aromatic combinations.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Black, Maggie (1989), Paxton & Whitfield's Fine Cheese, London: Webb & Bower/Michael Joseph.
Graham, Peter (1988), Classic Cheese Cookery, London: Penguin.
Jones, Evan (1976), The World of Cheese, New York: Knopf.
Nantet, Bernard, Rance, Patrick, et al. (1993), Cheeses of the World, London: Little, Brown.
Naso, Irma (1990), Formaggi del Medioevo, Turin: Il Segnalibro.
Rance, Patrick (1982), The Great British Cheese Book, London: Macmillan.
Rance, Patrick (1989), The French Cheese Book, London: Macmillan.
