Cheese – Sumptuous, Creamy and Silky
Cheese, as soon as the name is read, the tongue rolls with the flavour of the cheese and heart drools in its creamy and silky texture. The history of cheese is about five thousand years old. Cheese making equipments have been dug out in European countries found in the era of about 3000 B.C. The goat cheese is said to be the dairy product used by man since the times he started to domesticate animals. Cheese was one of those first items which man learnt to preserve after obtaining from the highest perishable item milk.
Cheese is of many types and is of many varieties. The varieties of cheese taste different from each other. From the history of cheese it is known that the flavour of the cheese varies because of the type of the milk being used in its preparation. If the milk used while the preparation of cheese is pasteurized then cheese would taste different and if milk used in preparation of cheese is unpasteurized it would taste different. Further taste variations are seen due to the presence of different kinds of microbes, the varying fat content and the processing method.
From the history of cheese it has also been known that there are certain other varieties of cheese with different flavour and colours because they are made by adding certain spices and condiments and out of them few are being smoked too. Americans are the biggest producer of cheese and the largest consumers too. Cheese enhances the flavour of food to which it is being added. Cheese has been one of the most sumptuous, finger licking, creamy, milky and to die for delicacy since time immemorial. The desire for cheese is irresistible.
Cheese since ancient times was made from the initial basic method called as Curdling. In this curdling phenomenon the cheese is made from curd in which curd is divided into two portions, one is solid mass and the other is the watery whey. Whenever there is acidic kind of coagulation of the curdy mass, a running thinner cheese is obtained. To make the cheese more tensile in its strength or to make it rubbery sometimes a substance known as Rennet is added to it. In the end cheese is being cured with the help of salt which removes excessive moisture from it and also acts as a preservative and stops the microbial growth too. In the history of cheese it has been always mentioned that older the few varieties of cheese more extravagant they taste. The best example is the cheese feta which is 203 yrs old and the Swiss cheese which is being matured deliberately for one yr to give it the desired aroma and flavour.
