BOOK OF CHEESE 



ing 60 to 75 per cent of water, as in " cottage cheese " 

 (the sour-milk cheese so widely made in the homes), must 

 be eaten or lost in a very few days. Spoilage is very rapid. 

 In contrast to this, the Italian Parmesan, with 30 to 32 

 per cent of water, requires two to three years for proper 

 ripening. 



The cheeses made from soured skim-milk probably 

 represent the most ancient forms of cheese-making. 

 Their origin is lost in antiquity. The makers of Roque- 

 fort cheese cite passages from Pliny which they think 

 refer to an early form of that product. It is certain that 

 cheese in some form has been familiar to man throughout 

 historic times. The technical literature of cheese-making 

 is, however, essentially recent. The older literature may 

 be cited to follow the historical changes in details of 

 practice. 



2. Cheese-making as an art has been developed to 

 high stages of perfection in widely separate localities. 

 The best known varieties of cheese bear the geographical 

 names of the places of their origin. The practices of 

 making and handling such cheeses have been developed 

 in intimate relation to climate, local conditions and the 

 habits of the people. So close has been this adjustment 

 in some cases, that the removal of expert makers of such 

 cheeses to new regions has resulted in total failure to 

 transplant the industry. 



3. Cheese-making as a science has been a compara- 

 tively recent development. It has been partly a nat- 

 ural outgrowth of the desire of emigrant peoples to 

 carry with them the arts of their ancestral home, partly 

 the desire to manufacture at home the good things met 

 in foreign travel. Its development has been largely 

 coincident with the development of the agricultural school 



