Cheese is a solid food made from themilk of cows.goats,sheep, and other mammals. The milk is curdled using some combination
of rennet (or rennet substitutes) and . Bacteria acidify the milk and play a role in defining the texture and flavor of most cheeses. Some cheeses also feature molds, either on the outer rind or throughout.There are
produced all over the world. Different styles and flavors of cheese are the result of using different species of bacteria and molds, different levels of milk fat variations in length of aging, differing processing treatments (cheddaring, pulling, brining, mold wash) and different breeds of cows, sheep, or other mammals. Other factors include animal diet and the addition of flavoring agents such as herbs, spices, or wood smoke. Whether the milk is pasteurized may also affect the flavor. The yellow to red coloring of many cheeses is a result of adding annatto. Cheeses are eaten both on their own and cooked into various dishes; most cheeses melt when cooked.For a few cheeses, the milk is curdled by adding acids such as vinegar or lemon juice. Most cheeses, however, are acidified to a lesser degree by bacteria, which turn milk, into lactic acid, followed by the addition of rennet to complete the curdling. Rennet is an enzyme mixture traditionally obtained from the stomach lining of young cattle, but now also laboratory produced. Vegetarian alternatives to rennet are also available; most are produced by fermentation of the fungus
Mucor miehei, but substitute "vegetable rennets" have also been extracted from various species of the
Cynara thistle family.The word
cheese is derived from the Middle English
chese, from the Old English
cīese or
cēse, itself derived from the Latin
caseus.
Modern era :---
Until its modern spread along with European culture, cheese was nearly unheard of in oriental
cultures, uninvented in the pre-columbian Americas, and of only limited use in sub-mediterranean Africa, mainly being widespread and popular only in Europe and areas influenced strongly by its cultures. But with the spread, first of European imperialism, and later of Euro-American culture and food, cheese has gradually become known and increasingly popular worldwide, though still rarely considered a part of local ethnic cuisine.
The first factory for the industrial production of cheese opened in Switzerland in 1815, but it was in the United States where large-scale production first found real success. Credit usually goes to Jesse Williams, a dairy farmer from Rome, New York, who in 1851 started making cheese in an assembly-line fashion using the milk from neighboring farms. Within decades hundreds of such dairy associations existed.The 1860s saw the beginnings of mass-produced rennet, and by the turn of the century scientists were producing pure microbial cultures. Before then, bacteria in cheesemaking had come from the environment or from recycling an earlier batch's whey; the pure cultures meant a more standardized cheese could be produced.Factory-made cheese overtook traditional cheesemaking in the World War II era, and factories have been the source of most cheese in America and Europe ever since. Today, Americans buy more processed cheese than "real", factory-made or not.