The world's oldest cheese made around 1600 BC will be found

ByAndrew McFarlane

Gourd cheese's aging period is 3 to 5 years, and cheddar cheese has aged for more than 10 years, but cheese which has undergone maturing period which is not comparable with them has been found from Chinese mummies.

Great Gouda! World's oldest cheese found - on mummies
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/02/25/worlds-oldest-cheese/5776373/

I found cheese in GermanyMax Planck Institute for Molecular and Cellular BiologyProfessor Andrej Shevchenko of Professor Andrej Shevchenko said, "We not only discovered the early cheese, but also gained direct evidence on how cheese was made in ancient times, the way to make cheese is simple It is cheap and it is thought that it was spreading to the general public. " The cheese found from the neck and chest of the mummy is believed to be made around 1615 BC,LactaseIt was of a type not included.

Mummies themselves are located in northwestern China by Swedish archaeologists in 1930Taklamakan DesertThings that were found in. People in the Bronze Age period put relatives' bodies in a wooden container like a boat and were buried in a sand near the river which is not present at the moment. At this time, Professor Shevchenko says that the container is tightly wrapped with a cowhide skin, apparently looking like a vacuum pack.

The dead body escapes corrosion by the dry environment of the desert and the soil that contains a lot of salt, and it becomes freeze-dried condition. The discovered mummy was light brown hair, wearing a felt hat, wearing a wool cape and leather boots. As a result of analyzing the species of plants and the tissues of animals in the grave, it is believed that burials took place around 1650 BC around 1450 BC.


Analyzing a strange mass discovered from the neck and chest of a mummy, the components of the lump were protein and fat, Professor Shevchenko and others declared that this was cheese instead of butter or milk. It is not clear why the cheese was buried with the dead, but Professor Shevchenko thinks that it is something like a gift.

Cheese is a fermented milk with bacteria and yeast, which is still presentKefirIt is a technique used in making such as. However, most of the cheese currently being eaten is not a way to make kefir,RennetIt is fermented by an enzyme made in the mammal's stomach called "mammalian stomach" and the idea that the beginning of cheese has been changed to "cheese by accident when carrying milk in a bag made of animal's internal organs" Was common. Therefore, if truly people were making cheese with bacteria and yeast, the history of cheese could change drastically.

ByHans Splinter

To make cheese with rennet it is necessary to kill young animals, but if you use the same method as for Kefir creation it is not necessary. Professor Shevchenko argues that this method was born in the Middle East and spread throughout Asia due to its simplicity and low cost. Kefir has little lactase,Lactose intoleranceHe was also accepted by Asian people who have many.

So far, in Poland, fragments of cheese syrups more than 7000 years ago have been found, and in Denmark there are 5000 years ago containers that may have been used to make cheese, but the oldest surviving It was the first time for Tevchenko's team to find cheese. However, Professor Oliver Craig at York University believes that "It is difficult to prove that proteins are corrosive quickly and conclude that cheese making methods like kefir were taken earlier than rennet."

ByPier-Luc Bergeron