Cheese is one of the oldest manufactured foods.

Homer’s stories describe the making of cheese by the Cyclops ; archeological discoveries in Mesopotamia have revealed cheese-making equipment in the Pharaohs’ tombs, and the first traces of the food date back to ancient times (between 3500 and 2800 B.C.).

LThe first one to clearly distinguish between the different stages necessary to make cheese was the Roman, Calomel, in 60 A.D. with his Treaty of Agronomy. In it, he recommended curdling the milk with the stomach of unweaned calves or with the sap of a fig tree.

The curdled milk was then drained into rattan baskets or into perforated wooden containers, after which it was pressed with heavy stones. Calomel points out the importance of salt in the fabrication of this product, which brings out its taste, but also plays a role in its dehydration and conservation.

At this time, cheese was already becoming a daily part of the Roman troops’ rations, and Cesar himself would eventually succumb to the charm of a blue cheese from Saint Affrique, just a few kilometers from Roquefort-sur-Soulzon… But with the fall of the Roman Empire and the Barbaric invasion, a great deal of cheese recipes slowly disappeared. Only a few production methods could be saved, in monasteries or remote valleys.

Cover the course of time, it was in these places of contemplation that, in order to ensure their survival, the monks provided all the patience and care necessary to fine-tune many cheese recipes that still exist today.

But cheese didn’t remain exclusive to this minority very long. Starting in the 13th century, farmers, in order to ensure their income and to get the most out of their milk production, began perfecting new varieties of cheese. It was in this way that the first French dairy cooperative was born in Déservilliers in 1267.

Thus, at the dawn of the 19th century, France could boast of producing many cheeses, some of whose reputations had already been established : Maroilles, Brie, Neufchâtel en Bray, Camembert, Roquefort, and Bleu de Sassenage.

At this point, the history of cheese took a big turn. Pasteur discovered that several microorganisms activated the fermentation of certain food products, notably milk, and that these bacteria could be destroyed with heat. Thanks to “pasteurization,” (the industrial process of destroying bacteria with high temperatures), the 19th century would be revolutionary for the cheese world, which would later take flight and branch out into a new area : the cheese industry.

Today, with a booming cheese industry, France produces more than 500 cheeses, and animal breeders, milk specialists, and cheese experts all remain scientists who perpetuate an art as old as time.