It’s difficult to determine when the first cheeses were created. Ancient legends suggest it was accidentally made by an Arabian merchant who put his milk supply into a pouch while walking across the desert. When mixed with the hot desert sun, and the rennet of his sheepskin pouch, and separated into curd and whey, and after drinking the whey ate the cur which he discovered had a unique flavour and filled him up.
In Greek mythology, the demigod Aristaeus is credited with discovering cheese. However, the earliest hard evidence of cheese-making dates back to before 5,500 BC, in the Polish region of Kujawy, where archaeologists working at a cattle-rearing site discovered ceramic vessels with holes in them, like a cheese strainer.
Cheese had become a common food group by the time the Roman Empire was at the height of their powers. Soldiers in the Roman army knew how to make cheese, and some luxurious families even had special cheese kitchens.
Once the Roman armies captured an area, the soldiers would often retire in the area they were stationed and introduced the local area to cheese-making, establishing the industry the town. This is most apparent in the Netherlands where many cities across the country’s old Roman border are linked with cheese, notably Gouda, the namesake city of the famous mild cheese. After conquering England, the Romans introduced cheese to Britain
After Rome fell, the advancement of cheese-making slowed. It became a staple of trading and commerce but was dismissed as peasant’s food and would never appear on noble’s plate.
Once cheese began being mass-produced, however, it became readily available for all families and grew into a staple part of a lot of diets. When the home refrigerator was invented in 1913 cheese also become simple to store for long periods of time, and has been a core part of European people’s eating habits ever since.
