Cheese
Cheese is a type of dairy product produced in a range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein.
Their styles, textures and flavors depend on the origin of the milk (including the animal's diet), whether they have been pasteurised, the butterfat content, the bacteria and mold, the processing, and how long they have been aged.
[2] Most cheeses are acidified by bacteria, which turn milk sugars into lactic acid; the addition of rennet completes the curdling.
[citation needed] The Online Etymological Dictionary states that "cheese" derives from:[5] Old English cyse (West Saxon), cese (Anglian) ... from West Germanic *kasjus (source also of Old Saxon kasi, Old High German chasi, German Käse, Middle Dutch case, Dutch kaas), from Latin caseus [for] "cheese" (source of Italian cacio, Spanish queso, Irish caise, Welsh caws).The Online Etymological Dictionary states that the word is of:[5] unknown origin; perhaps from a PIE root *kwat- "to ferment, become sour" (source also of Prakrit chasi "buttermilk;" Old Church Slavonic kvasu "leaven; fermented drink," kyselu "sour," -kyseti "to turn sour;" Czech kysati "to turn sour, rot;" Sanskrit kvathati "boils, seethes;" Gothic hwaþjan "foam").When the Romans began to make hard cheeses for their legionaries' supplies, a new word started to be used: formaticum, from caseus formatus, or "cheese shaped in a mold".
Of the Romance languages, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Tuscan and some Southern Italian dialects use words derived from caseus (queso, queijo, caș, cacio and caso for example).
Because animal skins and inflated internal organs have provided storage vessels for a range of foodstuffs since ancient times, it is probable that the process of cheese making was discovered accidentally by storing milk in a container made from the stomach of an animal, resulting in the milk being turned to curd and whey by the rennet from the stomach.
Observation that the effect of making cheese in an animal stomach gave more solid and better-textured curds may have led to the deliberate addition of rennet.
[13] A 2018 scientific paper stated that cheese dating to approximately 1200 BCE (3200 years before present), was found in ancient Egyptian tombs.
[14][15] The earliest ever discovered preserved cheese was found on mummies in Xiaohe Cemetery in the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang, China, dating back as early as 1615 BCE.
Homer's Odyssey (8th century BCE) describes the monstrous Cyclops making and storing sheep's and goats' milk cheese (translation by Samuel Butler): We soon reached his cave, but he was out shepherding, so we went inside and took stock of all that we could see.
[19] Columella's De Re Rustica (c. 65 CE) details a cheesemaking process involving rennet coagulation, pressing of the curd, salting, and aging.
[23] Pliny's Natural History (77 CE) devotes a chapter (XI, 97) to describing the diversity of cheeses enjoyed by Romans of the early Empire.
[25] In 1022, it is mentioned that Vlach (Aromanian) shepherds from Thessaly and the Pindus mountains, in modern Greece, provided cheese for Constantinople.
[28] Variations on this sentiment were long repeated and NASA exploited this myth for an April Fools' Day spoof announcement in 2006.
Before then, bacteria in cheesemaking had come from the environment or from recycling an earlier batch's whey; the pure cultures meant a more standardized cheese could be produced.
[34] In 2021, world production of cheese from whole cow milk was 22.2 million tonnes, with the United States accounting for 28% of the total, followed by Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands as secondary producers (table).
As of 2021, the carbon footprint of a kilogram of cheese ranged from 6 to 12 kg of CO2eq, depending on the amount of milk used; accordingly, it is generally lower than beef or lamb, but higher than other foods.
[36] France, Iceland, Finland, Denmark and Germany were the highest consumers of cheese in 2014, averaging 25 kg (55 lb) per person per annum.
[citation needed] Swiss starter cultures include Propionibacterium freudenreichii, which produces propionic acid and carbon dioxide gas bubbles during aging, giving Emmental cheese its holes or eyes.
Rennet sets the cheese into a strong and rubbery gel compared to the fragile curds produced by acidic coagulation alone.
In general, softer, smaller, fresher cheeses are curdled with a greater proportion of acid to rennet than harder, larger, longer-aged varieties.
More often today, prepared cultures are used, giving more consistent results and putting fewer constraints on the environment where the cheese ages.
There are many types of cheese, with around 500 different varieties recognized by the International Dairy Federation,[40] more than 400 identified by Walter and Hargrove, more than 500 by Burkhalter, and more than 1,000 by Sandine and Elliker.
Browned, partially burned cheese has a particular distinct flavor of its own and is frequently used in cooking (e.g., sprinkling atop items before baking them).
[52] In general, cheese is a rich source (20% or more of the Daily Value, DV) of calcium, protein, phosphorus, sodium and saturated fat.
[52] National health organizations, such as the American Heart Association, Association of UK Dietitians, British National Health Service, and Mayo Clinic, among others, recommend that cheese consumption be minimized, replaced in snacks and meals by plant foods, or restricted to low-fat cheeses to reduce caloric intake and blood levels of LDL fat, which is a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration states that soft raw-milk cheeses can cause "serious infectious diseases including listeriosis, brucellosis, salmonellosis and tuberculosis".
Australia has a wide ban on raw-milk cheeses as well, though in recent years exceptions have been made for Swiss Gruyère, Emmental and Sbrinz, and for French Roquefort.
[63] The national dish of Bhutan, ema datshi, is made from homemade yak or mare milk cheese and hot peppers.
Such cheeses are an acquired taste because they are processed using molds or microbiological cultures,[69] allowing odor and flavor molecules to resemble those in rotten foods.
