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Period: 400 to
The History of Cheese
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Growth
The wholesale cheese industry was thus born and showed phenomenal growth during the latter half of the 1800s. By 1880 there were 3,923 dairy factories nationwide which were reported to have made 216 million pounds of cheese that year valued at $17 million. -
Swiss Cheese
In 1845, a band of Swiss immigrants settled in Green County, Wisconsin and started the manufacturing of foreign cheese in America. They soon after made swiss cheese. -
The First Cheese Factory
The making of cheese quickly spread in the New World, but until the 19th century it remained a local farm industry. It wasn't until 1851 that the first cheese factory in the United States was built by Jesse Williams in Oneida County, New York. -
How Far Cheese has Come
Currently, more than one-third of all milk produced each year in the U.S. is used to manufacture cheese. Recent increases in the overall demand for farm milk have in large part been due to the continued growth of the cheese industry. -
Blue Cheese
Blue cheese is a general classification of cow's milk, sheep's milk, or goat's milk cheeses that have had Penicillium cultures added so that the final product is spotted or veined throughout with blue, blue-gray or blue-green mold, and carries a distinct smell. -
Cheddar
Cheddar cheese originated in the village of Cheddar, England. A firm, cow's milk cheese that ranges in flavor from mild to sharp and in color from a natural white to pumpkin orange. -
Feta Cheese
Feta cheese is one of the oldest cheeses in the world and is said to be a product from Greece. Since October 2002 feta cheese has been formally accepted as a Greek only cheese Feta is soft cheese, and is made from sheep milk if a mixture of sheep and goat milk. -
Vegetarian Cheese
Vegetarian cheese is cheese that is not curdled with rennet, which is an enzyme that exists naturally in animal stomachs. Rennet is the popular name used by cheese makers to coagulate milk, forming curds. Most vegetarian cheeses are coagulated with plants, fungi or bacteria. -
The Beginning
Gorgonzola was made in the Po Valley in Italy in 879 A.D., Italy became the cheesemaking center of Europe during the 10th Century.
