Cheese and curdling of milk are mentioned in the Book of Job. David was
sent by his father, Jesse, to carry ten cheeses to the camp, and to see
how his brethren fared. "Cheese of kine" formed part of the supplies of
David's army at Mahanaim during the rebellion of Absalom. Homer makes
cheese form part of the ample stores found by Ulysses in the cave of the
Cyclop Polyphemus. Euripides, Theocritus, and other early poets, mention
cheese. Ludolphus says that excellent cheese and butter were made by the
ancient Ethiopians. Strabo states that some of the ancient Britons were
so ignorant that, though they had abundance of milk, they did not
understand the art of making cheese. There is no evidence that any of
these ancient nations had discovered the use of rennet in making cheese;
they appear to have merely allowed the milk to sour, and subsequently to
have formed the cheese from the caseous part of the milk, after
expelling the serum or whey. As David, when too young to carry arms, was
able to run to the camp with ten cheeses, ten loaves, and an ephah of
parched corn, the cheeses must have been very small.
Thomas Coghan, in _The Haven of Health_, 1584, says: "What cheese is
well made or otherwise may partly be perceived by an old Latin verse
translated thus--'Cheese should be white as snowe is, nor ful of eyes as
Argos was, nor old as Mathusalem was, nor rough as Esau was, nor full of
spots as Lazarus.' Master Tusser, in his book of Husbandrie, addeth
'other properties also of cheese well made, which whoso listeth may
reade. Of this sort, for the most part, is that which is made about
Bamburie in Oxfordshire; for of all the cheese (in my judgment) it is
the best, though some prefer Cheshire cheese made about Nantwich, and
others also commend more the cheese of other countries; but Bamburie
cheese shall goe for my money, for therein (if it be of the best sort)
you shall neither tast the renet nor salt, which be two speciall
properties of good cheese. Now who is so desirous to eat cheese must
eate it after other meate, and in a little quantity. A pennyweight,
according to the old saying, is enough; for being thus used it bringeth
two commodities. First, It strengthened a weake stomache. Secondly, It
maketh other meates to descend into the chief place of digestion; that
is, the bosome of the stomache, which is approved in "Schola Salerni."
But old and hard cheese is altogether disallowed, and reckoned among
those ten manner of meates which ingender melancholy, and bee
unwholesome for sick folkes, as appeareth before in the chapter of
Beefe.'"
The county of Chester was, ages since, famous for the excellence of its
cheese. It is stated that the Countess Constance of Chester (reign of
Henry II., 1100), though the wife of Hugh Lupus, the King's first
cousin, kept a herd of kine, _and made good cheese_, three of which she
presented to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Giraldus Cambrensis, in the
twelfth century, bears honourable testimony to the excellence of the
Cheshire cheese of his day.
Cheshire retains its celebrity for cheese-making: the pride of its
people in the superiority of its cheese may be gathered from the
following provincial song, with the music, published in 1746, during the
Spanish war, in the reign of George II.
"A Cheshire-man sailed into Spain,
To trade for merchandise:
When he arrivèd from the main
A Spaniard him espies.
"Who said, 'You English rogue, look here--
What fruits and spices fine
Our land produces twice a year!
Thou hast not such in thine.'
"The Cheshire-man ran to his hold,
And fetched a Cheshire cheese,
And said, 'Look here, you dog! behold,
We have such fruits as these!
"'Your fruits are ripe but twice a year,
As you yourself do say;
But such as I present you here,
Our land brings twice a day.'
"The Spaniard in a passion flew,
And his rapier took in hand;
The Cheshire-man kicked up his heels,
Saying, 'Thou art at my command!'
"So never let a Spaniard boast,
While Cheshire-men abound,
Lest they should teach him, to his cost,
To dance a Cheshire round!"[56]
Next to Cheshire rank Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, and Somerset, for
their cheese. In the latter county they have the proverb:
"If you wid have a good cheese, and hav'n old,
You must turn 'n seven times before he is old."
To curdle the milk in cheese-making was formerly used the _Galium verum_
of botanists, a wild flower with square stems, shining whorled leaves,
and loose panicles of small yellow flowers, popularly known as _Cheese
Rennet_.
The practice of mixing sage and other herbs, and the flowers or seeds of
plants, with cheese, was common among the Romans; and this led to the
herbs, &c. being worked into heraldic devices in the Middle Ages.
Charlemagne once ate cheese mixed with parsley-seeds at a bishop's
palace, and liked it so much, that ever after he had two cases of such
cheese sent yearly to Aix-la-Chapelle. Our pastoral poet of the last
century has noted this device:
"Marbled with sage, the hardened cheese she pressed."--GAY.