Curds and Whey

            There is a food product that has been with humans for thousands of years, establishing itself as one of the key ingredients in numerous diets, and that can be found in various colors, textures and sizes.  It can be eaten alone or it can be added to other foods, either in large quantities or as a minute addition.  This “Swiss army knife” of foods is cheese.  This product has a long history within our society and is fairly simple to create. 

            Every day I consume cheese in some way or form, either as slices like on a sandwich, sprinkled on food such as pasta, or melted onto the food like pizza.  It occurred to me that this substance is a vital part of our human diet and history.  We eat it with nearly every type of food during every meal time and we have been doing so for many years. 

            It is uncertain when cheese was first created but we do know that it has been around for thousands of years, as far back as 9000 B.C. (Watson 16).   Despite no one confirming when this amazing sustenance was found, it is widely accepted that it was created accidentally.   A long time ago, people would use animal stomachs as storage devices, particularly for liquids.  It is expected that someone had put in one of these stomachs and the milk began to sour.  Either through continuous walking or riding on a horse the curds and whey began to form, making the basis of cheese. (Watson 16).  Ever since its creation, different cultures have added their own twist to the making of cheese, giving it various flavors.  Today cheese is made in nearly every country in the world, from virtually every kind of animal milk around. 

            One of the reasons it so widely used around the world is because of its versatility.  Since it can be made from any animal that produces milk, it is automatically available all around the world.  Every culture has some sort of animal that produces milk, whether it be a cow, goat, water buffalo, pig, etc…  Also, it can be take on numerous forms.  It can be hard or soft, big or small.  This allows the locals to utilize it for their own use such as traveling long distances or using it on the dining table during a feast.  The final component to cheese being such a successful food is how long it lasts, you can take it anywhere and it will remain good for a long period of time, as long as it is made a certain way.  The methods and ingredients used to create cheese ultimately dictate how it can be used and eaten. 

             It is fairly simple to make cheese.  The basic idea remains the same, but to make different kinds of cheese, different ingredients are added at different times and the cheese is left to ferment for various lengths of time.  You start off by putting milk in a container, heating it and adding a catalyst, usually rennin, to make the milk sour quicker and begin the curd and whey process.  The milk is stirred to help separate the curds and whey even further.  Then the whey, the liquid part, is drained from the curd, it depends on the type of cheese on how much whey will be drained.  The drier the cheese, the less whey there is.  This is when various ingredients are added, such as salt, to give the cheese more flavors. Finally, the cheese I molded into whatever form is desired (hence the famous cheese wheel) and typically encased in some barrier such as wax to retain its shape and flavor during storage.  Even the amount of time spent in storage affects the taste of the cheese, the longer it is storage, the “sharper” it is (Anonymous 52).  The method is so simple, anyone can make it, and there are multiple videos online that explain how to make homemade cheese in your very own home. 

            Learning more about one of my favorite foods has encouraged me to maintain the same mindset that I had before; cheese is great.  Researching has allowed me to learn more about the origins of cheese and how it is made, allowing me to appreciate this wonderful commodity even more than before.  Prior to this research, I knew the very basics of what cheese was and how it was made.  Now I am aware how much it has been used throughout history and exactly how to make it, even in my own kitchen.   Learning these things has made me admire cheese even more than before and strive to learn more.

            Cheese has been a large part of the human diet for thousands of years, no one exactly knows how it came about but they do suspect it was some lucky traveler.   The basic method to making this heaven on Earth has not changed for hundreds of years, it has merely been industrialized, providing cheese lovers like myself with even more cheese than we know what to do with.

Works Cited

Anonymous. "Cheese Making." Appropriate Technology 4th ser. 35 (2008): 52-56. Print.

Watson, Collen. "Cheese, Please!" Children's Digest (1997): 16. Print.