How Did Sour Milk Become One of the World's Most Loved Foods?

Some cheeses smell, as one food writer put it, of shoes, soil and the stable. Yet by 2012 cheese was one of the most shoplifted foods in the world. How did sour milk get here? Cheese is older than writing: the earliest strainers coated with milk fat date to 5500 BCE, and the oldest preserved cheese was found on mummies in China's Taklamakan Desert. Even its name goes back to an ancient root meaning "to ferment, to become sour". We follow four clues, a lucky stomach, a food that keeps, an army of microbes and the factory, to explain how a way of preserving milk became more than a thousand cheeses and over 22 million tonnes a year. Along the way we cover: the animal-stomach theory and the legend of the Arab trader; strainers from Kuyavia in Poland, the Dalmatian coast, Egyptian tombs and the Xiaohe mummies; Aristaeus, the Cyclops in Homer's Odyssey, Columella and Pliny the Elder; Ceswican, the "cheese farm" on the Thames, Vlach shepherds and Constantinople; when Cheddar, Parmesan, Gouda and Camembert were first recorded, and the moon made of green cheese; how cheese is made: lactose and lactic acid, rennet, curds and whey, cutting, heating, salting and pressing; stretching, cheddaring and washing; ripening (affinage), moulds, and the holes in Emmental; types by moisture, Charles de Gaulle's 246 cheeses, and why some cheeses melt and others don't; the first cheese factory, Jesse Williams's assembly line, pure cultures and world production; nutrition and heart health, raw-milk rules, cheese in Bhutan and China, and the acquired taste of smelly cheese. Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:25 The question 0:52 The Lucky Accident 1:49 A Food That Keeps 2:38 Names on the Map 3:20 Curds and Whey 4:26 The Slow Magic 5:32 The Cheese Factory 6:29 Loved and Feared 7:28 The answer The Long Answer: one question, eight minutes, the whole story. History, science, technology and strange events, explained clearly for curious people. Photo credits (Wikimedia Commons) Marie-Lan Taÿ Pamart (CC BY 4.0) – Comté ripening cellars, Fort Saint-Antoine, France (3 photos) Liné1 (CC BY-SA 3.0) – A cheese-ripening cellar, Fort des Rousses, Jura (also used for the thumbnail) Daniel Villafruela (CC BY-SA 3.0) – Roquefort cheeses ripening, Roquefort-sur-Soulzon Daieuxetdailleurs (CC BY-SA 3.0) – Saint-Nectaire cheeses ripening on straw Gilles Desjardins (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Parmigiano Reggiano wheels Unknown photographer (CC BY-SA 3.0) – A Parmigiano Reggiano store room Wittylama (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Parmigiano Reggiano wheels Dguendel (CC BY 4.0) – Cheese porters, Alkmaar cheese market Raimond Spekking (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Alkmaar cheese market Victuallers (CC BY-SA 3.0) – A cheese stall, Jedburgh Andy Mitchell (CC BY-SA 2.0) – A cheese stall, Barcelona Jesse Gillies (CC BY 2.0) – Separating curd and whey in a vat Shkurte Ramushi (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Traditional wooden cheese-making containers, Peja Hubertl (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Cheeses from the Isle of Mull; raclette U.S. Department of Agriculture (CC BY 2.0) – Cheese curds floating in whey Holger B (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Fresh cheese curds Cecilia (CC BY 2.0) – Curds and whey Rama (CC BY-SA 3.0) – A traditional cheese press, Gruyères Museo de Arqueología de Álava (CC BY-SA 4.0) – An ancient clay cheese strainer SuperManu (CC BY-SA 3.0) – Fresh curd draining in moulds, Gruyères Thesupermat (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Roquefort Thomon (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Roquefort on display Coyau (CC BY-SA 3.0) – Brie, Emmental, Crottin de Chavignol Roy Zuo (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Camembert Svenkaj (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Emmental production, Affoltern Popo le Chien (CC BY-SA 3.0) – Buffalo mozzarella Gary Bembridge (CC BY 2.0) – Cheddar ripening in a cave, Cheddar Gorge Acabashi (CC BY-SA 4.0) – A cheeseboard GabrielleMerk (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Cows and goats returning from summer pastures, Switzerland Eka Samkharadze (CC BY-SA 4.0) – A flock of sheep Justin Prince (CC BY-SA 3.0) – Sheep on a mountain pasture Lisbeth Bergh (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Norwegian school picture: milking at a summer farm, 1914 Finnish Heritage Agency (CC BY 4.0) – A girl milking a cow, 1921; a dairy starts making Emmental, Kuusamo, 1961 Silar (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Neolithic pottery; Neolithic finds from Kuyavia, Poland Bjoertvedt (CC BY-SA 3.0) – The Dalmatian coast from the air Didia (CC BY-SA 3.0) – Cattle, tomb painting of Nebamun, Egypt Baomi (CC BY-SA 4.0) – A Xiaohe mummy, Xinjiang Museum TyB (CC BY 2.0) – Odysseus offers wine to the Cyclops, Roman mosaic, Villa Romana del Casale Carole Raddato (CC BY-SA 2.0) – Antinous as Aristaeus, Louvre Wolfgang Sauber (CC BY-SA 3.0) – Pliny the Elder, statue on Como Cathedral Krzysztof Golik (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Maison Carrée, Nîmes Derek Harper (CC BY-SA 2.0) – The River Thames Bogdan Giuşcă (CC BY-SA 3.0) – The Pindus mountains, Greece Paramanu Sarkar (CC BY-SA 4.0) – The full moon Louis Figuier / Jules Férat (CC BY 2.0) – A drying room for cheese, 1873