HISTORY OF CHEESE

The art of cheesemaking is referred to in ancient Greek mythology and evidence of cheese and cheesemaking has been found on Egyptian tomb murals dating back over 4000 years. Cheese may have been discovered accidentally by the practice of storing milk in containers made from the stomachs of animals. The earliest evidence of cheesemaking in the archaeological record dates back to 5500 BCE and is found in what is now Kuyavia, Poland, where strainers coated with milk-fat molecules have been found. Cheesemaking may have begun independently of this by the pressing and salting of curdled milk to preserve it.