How Does Fat Content Impact the Cheese the Art of Cheese Making

There are few signifiers of culture more strong and recognizable than food. Edibles and cultural identity share a deep-seated connexion. Food, and especially our preferences for preparing, cooking and eating it, are about far more than simple survival. As Levi-Strauss suggests, "culture" is the process via which raw food becomes cooked. The opposition betwixt raw and cooked is homologous to that between nature and civilisation (Levi-Strauss 1946; 1966). Just as certain animals are set autonomously from society not because they are "proficient to swallow" but because they are "good to think [with]" (Levi-Strauss 1969: 89), so can other foods go imbued with symbolic pregnant that can embody the very essence of cultural identity. Foods not but provide nutrition and sustenance, they can concur a special place within society, valued for economic, political and/or religious reasons.

This post volition have an anthropological look at one item foodstuff – cheese – to see how this humble snack may exist annihilation only.

Dairy in human history

Cheese can take on most human characteristics: young or aged, stinky or fresh, abrupt or balmy. It comes in dozens of shapes and sizes from behemothic, smoothen wheels to pocket-size, crumbly wedges. The multifariousness of shapes and colors reflect various methods of producing and aging. Soft cheeses accept less time to prepare and spoil faster, while some difficult cheeses can historic period for years and remain safe to eat for longer. In that location are thousands of varieties from across the world, originally plant wherever milking animals had been domesticated and dairying industries adult.

Archaeologists accept recently discovered the earliest evidence of cheese production in the Mediterranean based on carbon dating of fat acids in pottery residues from the Dalmation declension of Croatia, putting the presence of milk dorsum as far every bit 7700 BP (McClure, et al 2018). Additional evidence constitute in eHRAF Archæology confirms the presence of cheese every bit early as the Neolithic period in several pastoralist traditions, including in Egypt (McArdle 1982), Mesopotamia (Adams 1981) and Siberia (Rice 1957, Rudenko 1970). Naturally, we find a connection between cheese product and the domestication of milk-producing animals:

the economic importance of domesticated sheep and goats grew by leaps and bounds during the Neolithic. One possible reason for this surge in popularity may be milk production. Churning milk transforms information technology into butter, the application of estrus produces clarified butter or ghee, and bacterial cultures can be used to plow the milk into yogurt or cheese. The bacteria, incidentally, remove most of the lactose from the milk, and then that properly aged cheese tin exist eaten even by lactose-intolerant people (Banning 1998: 212).

As it happens, approximately 65% of the world'south population are lactose intolerant or have a reduced power to digest lactose after infancy. Even though the dairy industry has some of its longest history in Europe, countries such every bit Greece and Italy as well take some of the highest rates of lactose intolerance in the world. However these Mediterranean countries are also home to many wonderful cheeses that are enjoyed around the globe. Could there be an evolutionary benefit to cheese product and consumption?

For early on farmers, cheese-making may have enabled humans to overcome lactose intolerance through the process of fermentation. Cheese in its fermented or aged state preserves the life of dairy products. In other words, it lasts longer than milk without spoiling, making information technology easier to eat and ship. Information technology is also dumbo in fat, protein, and calories: a dependable food source for surviving betwixt harvests or during food scarcity (McClure, et al 2018: 7). According to McClure (ibid: 8), this portable, nutritious and low-lactose dairy production reduced babe mortality rates among Europe's early farmers as well as enabled their demographic expansion; in the case of the Croatian instance, from the Mediterranean into northern Europe.

Cheese, Place & Civilization

It is non surprising, given the incredibly long human history of fermented dairy products, that there is a great deal of cultural meaning behind cheese and cheese-making amid those who eat and produce it. Cheese is a well-known cultural export, with many countries and regions in the dairy-producing world renowned for their famous varieties. Nowhere is the social dynamics of food more evident than in the politics of "Protected designation of origin" or PDO (Dias & Mendes 2018). Cheese is non but from somewhere, it can often be deeply entwined with local culture. We tin recognize information technology every bit tied to specific places, such as English Cheddar, Dutch Gouda, Swiss Gruyere, Castilian Manchego, French Camembert, Italian Parmigiano, Indian Paneer, Mongolian Byaslag, and so on.

Even in today'south global economic system, the more closely a food can be tied to a specific, "genuine" locale, the stronger our perception of its authenticity and trust in its quality. Equally Muchnik, et al (2005: 1) explicate:

The demand for identity reflects the upheaval of established identity references in a globe that has been subjected to rapid changes. Thus, food acquires an essential role in each individual's search for personal identity, in the 'individuation' of people and societies. Traditional breads, farmhouse cheeses, local wines in France, Kingdom of spain or Italy, hamlet-made couscous in People's democratic republic of algeria or Morocco, attiéké in Côte d'Ivoire or Pampas meat in Argentine republic are just a few examples. These acquire a new dimension and confirm that in France, "vino is not just wine" (Braudel, 1979) and that a version of this statement can be practical to all the different dietary cultures.

Indeed, cheese artisans find themselves fighting against globalization and homogenization of their product processes to see "modern" standards while wishing to maintain their traditional quality. These politics of cheese and identity – with related struggles to preserve and protect authenticity – can be found across the world, from villages from the Alps (Grasseni 2011) to Brazil (Muchnik et al 2005):

Food – cheese in this case – is ethnographically interesting considering of its pivotal capacity of cartoon many crucial aspects of life together, including the senses, retentiveness, tradition, everyday practice and habits, professional person skill, the relationship with power and bureaucracy, and the market place as a driving force of globalised communities (Grasseni 2011).

Ethnographies of Cheese

Sandra Ott's fascinating ethnography of Basque shepherds (Ott 1981) reveals much nearly the key role cheese tin can take in everyday life. In the remote French Basque Pyrenean hamlet of Sainte-Engrâce, the cheeses that local syndicates of shepherds produce from their mount huts takes so much care and attention that the resulting product is treated both metaphorically and ritually every bit their "children". The formation of both babies and mountain cheeses alike are seen as analogous processes in the local worldview: "men's generative creativity in procreation as in cheesemaking is believed to convey not only grade but too identity. Basque cheeses, no less than children, have paternity and come from patrilineages (Paxson 2013: 52)".

Cheese and cheese-making are cardinal to all aspects of life in the community where "mountain cheese" is a most prized commodity. More than only a nutrient that is "good to swallow", the many intrinsic qualities of the cheese and its production are a subject of much competition. When served cheese at another shepherd's home, men will engage in lively critical debates evaluating all aspects of the offering, from its shape and texture to its flavor. A successful cheese reflects the skill of its maker, which, in turn, is believed to reverberate upon his strength and virility equally a man. A homo'south social status therefore depends largely upon the quality of his mountain cheese, painstakingly nurtured to fruition and the product of great personal pride, much similar a dearest child:

A shepherd and his wife are extremely proud of his mountain cheeses. Different his house cheeses, to which the attending of visitors is never drawn, his mount cheese is an object to be displayed and unabashedly admired by its maker. Mountain cheeses generate as much competition amidst the shepherds equally do new-born infants among the women of this society. Even within the privacy of his household, a human being rarely admits that another'due south cheese is meliorate and more beautiful than his own. In much the same mode, mothers and grandmothers are reluctant to compare their infant unfavourably to the offspring of another adult female in the community (Ott 1981: 179).

So of import and valuable is the Basque mount cheese that its worth is tied in many means to the identity and integrity of its maker and their family. Cheese in this instance is imbued with power, taking on a unique role and political function every bit a form of social currency.

For example, on one occasion in 1976, Ott recounts that a shepherd ignored convention and attempted to serve house cheese (of lesser value) to his workers in place of mountain cheese. They snubbed his attempt: "the men only sat with their elbows on the table, opening and closing the pocket knives with which they pare the rind. Finally one man queried in a loud, mocking voice. Exercise the shepherds of this olha milk their ewes into the footing, or exercise they make mountain cheese?" (Ott 1981: 180). The host reluctantly gave in and brought out the mount cheese, which was uncharacteristically then eaten in its entirety by the shepherds during their stay "in order the punish the stinginess of their host" (ibid.).

This pocket-size contest shows the powerful symbolic value that cheese tin hold for a society where cooperation among shepherds is particularly important during the harvest flavour.

On a Roll

Cheese plays a like symbolic role every bit a social currency in some regions of Italia. The tiro al cacio is a cheese-tossing or cheese-rolling competition that oftentimes takes place at Italian festivals, notably Pasquetta or Easter Monday (Calta 2007). It is also tradition that followed Italian immigrant cultures to the New World, equally described in eHRAF'south Itailan-Americans culture collection.

First, in New York City 1 finds the aboriginal "game" of il formaggio:

Every bit big open spaces are required to play it, exhibitions are rare and take identify only at picnics outside the city or in private parks. This game calls for unusual strength as well equally skill, because the players must wield an 11 or 12 pound hard cheese with one hand. The actor who hits the given objective with the least number of throws is the winner and gets the cheese. In some parts of Italian republic information technology is played with a stone. What enlivens the proceedings is the excited betting of the spectators (Federal Writers Project 1969: 210).

And again in Clinton, Indiana:

In the typical tiro al cacio, contestants toss or gyre real cheeses at a marker or goal. The contestant whose cheese comes the closest wins all the other contestants' cheeses. In the traditional Italian context, cheese is real food with important symbolic links to the regional economy and the socioeconomic structure of the community: the tiro ostensibly gives poorer people a chance to win large amounts of the region'south primary economic commodity in a classic instance of the principle of festive redistribution […] Apparently in the early days, Clinton'southward Italians besides used existent cheeses for this upshot, which was and then associated with the Columbus Twenty-four hour period celebration; just as fourth dimension passed, the feeling grew that it was wasteful and impractical to utilise bodily cheeses, and wooden rounds replaced them (Magliocco and Del Guidice 1993: 120).

Today, cheese may exist a taken-for-granted snack in many societies. However, as this post has shown, the humbled dairy product has been an important key to homo evolution and survival. For many, it is a prized piece of national and local heritage, nurtured and dear as ane's own child. Because of its symbolic value, information technology tin can be wielded equally a political tool or economic article, used to contest or to level social and economic inequalities. At other times, information technology can represent hard piece of work, creativity, masculinity or any other number of markers of cultural identity. Finally, information technology tin detect itself playfully at the forefront of parties and festivities. Sometimes it is all of these things combined, making information technology a food that is both skilful to eat and good to think with.

Want to find out more than about cheese in eHRAF? Try searching with OCM 234 – Dairying!

References

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Calta, Thou. 2007. Roll That Cheese! It's Footling Easter in Italian republic. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/08/travel/08heads.html

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Source: https://hraf.yale.edu/the-social-life-of-cheese/

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