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Cheese Facts

Cheese Facts
Cheese is a food product created with different kinds of milk, coagulated, separated, and then pressed into form. Cheese can be made from the milk of a variety of animals including cows, sheep, goats and even buffalo. The milk is acidified in most cases by adding rennet. Other agents can be used as well such as vinegar or lemon. Some cheeses are aged with a mold on the rind. Some cheeses have mold throughout the cheese itself. The flavor of cheese can be influenced by the diet of the animal, pasteurization, amount of butterfat, mold and bacteria content, how it is processed, and how long it is aged (if it is aged).
Interesting Cheese Facts:
The word 'cheese' is derived from the Latin word 'caseus'. It is also derived from the word 'chese' from Middle English.
Cheese predates any recorded history. No evidence exists to prove where it originated. It may have been the Middle East, Central Asia, or Europe.
Archaeological records show that cheese making existed in Poland in 5,500 BC but it is believed that it began when sheep were first domesticated in 8000 BC.
18.7 million tonnes of cheese from whole cow's milk was produced worldwide in 2014.
The largest consumers of cheese in 2014 were France, Iceland, Finland, Denmark and Germany. On average each person consumed 55lbs of cheese that year.
Cheese is the most stolen food around the world. It is estimated that 4% of all cheese is stolen.
American President Andrew Jackson once had a 1400lb block of cheddar cheese delivered to the White House. It took 10,000 visitors only two hours to eat the 4 foot diameter, 2 foot thick block of cheese.
The holes in Swiss cheese were once seen as a sign of imperfection.
The biogas created by making Beaufort cheese in Albertville, France is used to create that city's electricity.
Cheddar cheese is not orange by nature. In the 1600s cheese began to be dyed orange to make people think it was better quality.
American cheese is not really cheese so it must be labeled 'cheese product' or 'American Singles'. This is the cheese that comes in slices individually wrapped in plastic.
Cheese contains trace amounts of morphine which means technically it could be addictive.
Half of the cheese consumed around the world is Gouda.
There are approximately 1000 different cheeses in France.
Cheese can be made from moose but it costs about $420lb.
The most expensive cheese in the world is called Pule cheese. It is made from Balkan donkey milk from Serbia, and costs about $600lb. Only 100 female milking donkeys are available for milking.
Some cheese is stretched to create its texture, such as mozzarella and provolone.
Harder cheeses have more pressure applied when being pressed into shape.
Cheese is usually categorized by moisture content, from soft, semi-soft, semi-hard to hard.
Some of the most well-known cheeses include cheddar, mozzarella, blue cheese, Havarti, feta, Parmigiano Reggiano, Brie, goats cheese, cream cheese, camembert, provolone, gorgonzola, ricotta, cottage cheese, Swiss cheese, and Monterey Jack.


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