Cheese and Culture: A History of Cheese and its Place in Western Civilization
In this scholarly yet accessible history of cheese, noted food scientist Kindstedt plumbs the very earliest evidence of cheese making. Beginning in the shadowy Neolithic era, improving climatic conditions encouraged sheep and goat herding throughout the Fertile Crescent. Manufacture of pottery made possible the storage of excess milk and provided a transportation medium. Primitive acid-coagulated cheeses emerged for local consumption, but the discovery of rennet coagulation made possible hard cheeses with long shelf lives that could readily be shipped across land and sea. During the Middle Ages, innovative European monastic communities developed sophisticated techniques that generated a tremendous diversity of cheeses. Cheddar and Stilton shone in England, France became famous for its Roquefort and Gruyère, and Holland marketed Gouda and Edam. Colonization of the New World and the Industrial Revolution gave rise to today’s mass-produced cheeses, not always to the benefit of quality or flavor. --Mark Knoblauch--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.