You Think You Know A Lot About Cheese?

How many different types of cheese do you think there are? The website Cheese.com says there are 670 different types of cheese – all of them have names from all over the world.

The history of cheese extends back about 10,000 years to the Middle East. Some Egyptian tomb murals show evidence of cheese-making. It probably was pretty salty and sour because of the hot, dry climate.

The word cheese comes from the Latin caseus. That root is closer to the Spanish word for cheese – queso. In English it became cheese.

What’s the most popular cheese in the world? Cheddar. It’s origination is from the village of Cheddar in Somersetshire, England. The Wisconsin Cheese Board says Americans alone eat an average of 9 pounds of cheddar cheese a year.

The types of cheese, the color and the texture are all determined by the kind of milk, the bacteria or acids used to separate the milk, how long it’s aged, the flavorings added, even the mold it’s poured into.

Most cheese is made from cow, goat or sheep’s milk, but there’s a place in Sweden that makes moose cheese. They have three moose on the farm that produce milk for just three months during the year and the resulting cheese is expensive. A kilogram – about two and a quarter pounds of it is about $1,000.00.

One of the world’s smelliest cheeses is Limburger. There’s only one place in North America that makes it – the Chalet Cheese Cooperative in Monroe, Wisconsin. It’s made with the same type of bacteria found on human skin. The bacteria that causes body odor is what gives Limburger its bad smell.

SOURCE: cheese.com