Cheese is one of those foods we tend to take for granted as it has always been with us. It ought to think someone somewhere must have discovered the process that takes place when microorganisms getting into milk and bringing about changes in its physical and biochemical structure.



Obiviously we don't know who discovered the process. But a thought came from south west Asia about 8000 years ago. Early cheese was pr0bably rather on palatable stuff, tasteless and bland in the case of the so called fresh cheeses which eat immediately after milk coalegulated and rough tasting and salty in the case of ripen cheeses which were made by adding salt to the soft fresh cheese and allowing another biochemical process to continue. So there is stronger tast than more solid texture result.



The ancient romans changed all that. They were great pioneers in the art of cheese making and the different varieties of cheese invented in technic producing them spread with them to the countries they invaded. This disemination of new technics took place between about 60BC and 300 AD. You can still trace that influence in the English word cheese which comes ultimitely from Latin CASEUS. Things went on quietly enough after the Roman period with the cheese producers in different countries getting on developing their own specialities. It is amazing varity flavor you can get from essentially the same process. At this stage in history, people weren't aware in a scientic way of the role of microorganism enzymes producing different types of chees. But they knew from experience that if you catch your milk or your precheese mixture at certain temperature or in a certain environment , things will turn out in a certain way. The Rockful cave in Fance is an example of place was used for centuries for the ripening of certain sort of cheese before people knew exactly why they produce the fact they did.



In the 1990, with increasing knowledge about microorganisms, there came the next great step farward in cheese making. Once it was known exactly which microorganism were involved in the different stages producinga cheese and how the prosence of different microorganisms effect the taste, it was possible to introduce some delibrately and to industralise the process. Cheese started being made on large scaling factories although the small producer working for his farm dave continued toexist and still exists today.



Cheese making move very much into world of technology and industral processes. Although because the aim is to produce sth that people like to eat, there is an important role for human judgement. People still go aroung tasting the young cheese at different stages to see how it is getting on and may add a bit of this or that to improve final taste. Whatever the scale of production, there is still a room for art alongside technology.

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