Cheese Facts - Your Online Source for Information on Cheese
Some Interesting Cheese Facts
Cheese facts are really quite astounding, and we should want to know all that we can about this tasty miracle. The first cheese factory in America was built in New York in 1851, and the industry quickly spread throughout the country, giving predetermined purpose to more than 1/3 of the milk production during this time period. The first cheese factory in Wisconsin was an afterthought to the cheese making boom, and was tardily erected in 1868. It did not produce the cheddar that Wisconsin has become so renowned for, but specialized in Limburger. Read on for a few more interesting cheese facts.
Though the earliest form of cheese, known today as yogurt, is reported to have existed as far back as 6000 BC, the nomads in the desert regions discovered the next step quite on accident around 2000 BC. By storing the precious milk of camels, one of their few sources of much needed fluids, in the stomach lining of a mammal, they discovered the key ingredient to the safe, productive separation of curb from whey… rennet. The natural rennet in the stomach lining caused the camels milk to render cottage cheese, giving the nomads another valuable source of sustenance. What the primal people had struggled for nearly two centuries to discover 4000 years prior was developed by coincidence 4000 miles away.
Some little known cheese facts include the number of cheeses available for consumption in the world today. Cheeses produced strictly with rendered cow’s milk top 160 types, from whites to oranges, from mild to obnoxious. The total number of varieties is staggering, as each country, particularly in Europe, has it’s own compilation of regional recipes and cheese making traditions.
There are cheeses made from the milk of goats, sheep, horses, camels, llamas, ox, water buffalo, reindeer, and so on. Any lactating mammal can produce the dairy needed for a vast array of cheese types and flavors. The Greek cheeses, for example, tend to favor goat and sheep dairy for the creation of soft, sweet, fresh cheeses all the way to hard, salty cheeses, based strictly upon method.
In America today, an estimated 8 billion pounds of real, natural cheese is produced per year. France and Italy each produce over four hundred distinctly authentic types of cheese each, to give an example of the astronomical number off cheeses created the world over. Cheese is multifaceted, and pairs well with anything from sweet fruits to bold wines. The bleu veined cheeses are accomplished by the injection of penicillium, which caused air circulation throughout the middle of the cheese and giving it its earthy, almost moldy flavor. There are over 800 known varieties of this cheese type alone.