0:00:07.034,0:00:09.594
Before empires and royalty,

0:00:09.594,0:00:11.764
before pottery and writing,

0:00:11.764,0:00:14.304
before metal tools and weapons –

0:00:14.304,0:00:16.094
there was cheese.

0:00:16.094,0:00:18.974
As early as 8000 BCE,

0:00:18.974,0:00:23.044
the earliest Neolithic farmers [br]living in the Fertile Crescent

0:00:23.044,0:00:25.474
began a legacy of cheesemaking

0:00:25.474,0:00:29.184
almost as old as civilization itself.

0:00:29.184,0:00:33.200
The rise of agriculture led to [br]domesticated sheep and goats,

0:00:33.200,0:00:36.110
which ancient farmers harvested for milk.

0:00:36.110,0:00:39.540
But when left in warm conditions [br]for several hours,

0:00:39.540,0:00:42.160
that fresh milk began to sour.

0:00:42.160,0:00:47.740
Its lactic acids caused proteins to [br]coagulate, binding into soft clumps.

0:00:47.740,0:00:50.520
Upon discovering this [br]strange transformation,

0:00:50.520,0:00:53.150
the farmers drained the remaining liquid –

0:00:53.150,0:00:54.760
later named whey –

0:00:54.760,0:01:01.510
and found the yellowish globs could be [br]eaten fresh as a soft, spreadable meal.

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These clumps, or curds, became [br]the building blocks of cheese,

0:01:05.942,0:01:10.602
which would eventually be aged, pressed, [br]ripened, and whizzed

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into a diverse cornucopia [br]of dairy delights.

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The discovery of cheese gave Neolithic[br]people an enormous survival advantage.

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Milk was rich with essential proteins, [br]fats, and minerals.

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But it also contained high [br]quantities of lactose –

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a sugar which is difficult to process for [br]many ancient and modern stomachs.

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Cheese, however, could provide all of [br]milk’s advantages with much less lactose.

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And since it could be preserved [br]and stockpiled,

0:01:42.088,0:01:44.478
these essential nutrients could be eaten

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throughout scarce famines [br]and long winters.

0:01:48.428,0:01:52.560
Some 7th millennium BCE pottery fragments [br]found in Turkey

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still contain telltale residues of [br]the cheese and butter they held.

0:01:57.290,0:01:58.990
By the end of the Bronze Age,

0:01:58.990,0:02:02.050
cheese was a standard commodity [br]in maritime trade

0:02:02.050,0:02:04.480
throughout the eastern Mediterranean.

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In the densely populated city-states of [br]Mesopotamia,

0:02:07.700,0:02:11.250
cheese became a staple [br]of culinary and religious life.

0:02:11.250,0:02:13.250
Some of the earliest known writing

0:02:13.250,0:02:16.340
includes administrative records [br]of cheese quotas,

0:02:16.340,0:02:20.440
listing a variety of cheeses for different[br]rituals and populations

0:02:20.440,0:02:22.215
across Mesopotamia.

0:02:22.215,0:02:27.345
Records from nearby civilizations [br]in Turkey also reference rennet.

0:02:27.345,0:02:31.340
This animal byproduct, produced in the[br]stomachs of certain mammals,

0:02:31.340,0:02:35.505
can accelerate and control coagulation.

0:02:35.505,0:02:40.225
Eventually this sophisticated cheesemaking[br]tool spread around the globe,

0:02:40.225,0:02:44.185
giving way to a wide variety of new, [br]harder cheeses.

0:02:44.185,0:02:48.245
And though some conservative food [br]cultures rejected the dairy delicacy,

0:02:48.245,0:02:54.105
many more embraced cheese, and quickly[br]added their own local flavors.

0:02:54.105,0:03:00.882
Nomadic Mongolians used yaks’ milk to[br]create hard, sundried wedges of Byaslag.

0:03:00.882,0:03:07.293
Egyptians enjoyed goats’ milk cottage [br]cheese, straining the whey with reed mats.

0:03:07.293,0:03:11.623
In South Asia, milk was coagulated with a[br]variety of food acids,

0:03:11.623,0:03:14.633
such as lemon juice, vinegar, or yogurt

0:03:14.633,0:03:18.303
and then hung to dry into loafs of paneer.

0:03:18.303,0:03:22.223
This soft mild cheese could be added to [br]curries and sauces,

0:03:22.223,0:03:25.903
or simply fried as a [br]quick vegetarian dish.

0:03:25.903,0:03:29.903
The Greeks produced bricks of salty brined[br]feta cheese,

0:03:29.903,0:03:34.563
alongside a harder variety similar to [br]today’s pecorino romano.

0:03:34.563,0:03:37.178
This grating cheese was produced in Sicily

0:03:37.178,0:03:41.158
and used in dishes all across the [br]Mediterranean.

0:03:41.158,0:03:45.297
Under Roman rule, “dry cheese” [br]or “caseus aridus,”

0:03:45.297,0:03:46.857
became an essential ration

0:03:46.857,0:03:53.397
for the nearly 500,000 soldiers guarding[br]the vast borders of the Roman Empire.

0:03:53.397,0:03:56.238
And when the Western Roman [br]Empire collapsed,

0:03:56.238,0:03:58.308
cheesemaking continued to evolve

0:03:58.308,0:04:02.388
in the manors that dotted the medieval[br]European countryside.

0:04:02.388,0:04:06.362
In the hundreds of Benedictine monasteries[br]scattered across Europe,

0:04:06.362,0:04:10.872
medieval monks experimented endlessly [br]with different types of milk,

0:04:10.872,0:04:12.222
cheesemaking practices,

0:04:12.222,0:04:17.202
and aging processes that led to many [br]of today’s popular cheeses.

0:04:17.202,0:04:20.955
Parmesan, Roquefort, Munster [br]and several Swiss types

0:04:20.955,0:04:26.085
were all refined and perfected [br]by these cheesemaking clergymen.

0:04:26.085,0:04:29.815
In the Alps, Swiss cheesemaking was[br]particularly successful –

0:04:29.815,0:04:32.897
producing a myriad of cow’s milk cheeses.

0:04:32.897,0:04:34.737
By the end of the 14th century,

0:04:34.737,0:04:39.727
Alpine cheese from the Gruyere region of[br]Switzerland had become so profitable

0:04:39.727,0:04:43.097
that a neighboring state invaded the [br]Gruyere highlands

0:04:43.097,0:04:46.507
to take control of the growing [br]cheese trade.

0:04:46.507,0:04:49.237
Cheese remained popular through [br]the Renaissance,

0:04:49.237,0:04:52.977
and the Industrial Revolution took [br]production out of the monastery

0:04:52.977,0:04:54.587
and into machinery.

0:04:54.587,0:04:59.647
Today, the world produces roughly [br]22 billion kilograms of cheese a year,

0:04:59.647,0:05:02.327
shipped and consumed around the globe.

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But 10,000 years after its invention,

0:05:05.097,0:05:10.377
local farms are still following in the [br]footsteps of their Neolithic ancestors,

0:05:10.377,0:05:14.457
hand crafting one of humanity’s [br]oldest and favorite foods.