This time, instead of an article, here is the transcript of this excellent and most informative video (below). The English subtitles can be turned on for better comprehension and there is the usual glossary at the side of the txt. A Brie(f) History of Cheese by Paul Kindstedt “Cheese [is] milk’s leap towards immortality” Clifton Fadiman Before empires and royalty, before pottery and writing, before metal tools and weapons – there was cheese. As early as 8000 BCE, Neolithic farmers living in the Fertile Crescent began a legacy of cheese-making almost as old as civilization itself. The rise of agriculture led to domesticated sheep and goats, which ancient farmers harvested for milk. But when left in warm conditions for several hours, that fresh milk began to sour. It’s lactic acids caused protein to coagulate, binding into soft clumps. Upon discovering this strange transformation, the farmers drained the remaining liquid – later named whey – and found that yellowish globs could be eaten fresh as a soft, spreadable meal. These clumps, or curds, became the building blocks of cheese, which would eventually be aged, pressed, ripened and whizzed into a diverse cornucopia of dairy delights. The discovery of cheese gave Neolithic people an enormous survival advantage. Milk was rich with essential proteins, fats and minerals. But it also contained high quantities of lactose – a sugar which is difficult to process for many ancient and modern stomachs. Cheese, however, could provide all of milk’s advantages with much less lactose and since it could be preserved and stockpiled, these essential nutrients could be eaten throughout scarce famines and long winters. Some 7th millennium BCE pottery fragments found in Turkey still contain telltale residues of the cheese and butter they held. By the end of the Bronze Age, cheese was a standard commodity in maritime trade throughout the eastern Mediterranean. In the densely populated city-states of Mesopotamia, cheese became a staple of culinary and religious life. Some of the earliest known writing includes administrative records of cheese quotas, listing a variety of cheeses for different rituals and populations across Mesopotamia. Records from nearby civilisations in Turkey also reference rennet. This animal by-product produced in the stomachs of certain mammals, can accelerate and control coagulation. Eventually, this sophisticated cheese-making tool spread around the globe, giving way to a wider variety of new, harder cheeses. And though some conservative food cultures rejected the dairy delicacy, many more embraced cheese and quickly added their own local flavours. Nomadic Mongolians used yacks’ milk to create hard, sun-dried wedges of Byaslag. Egyptians enjoyed goats’ milk cottage cheese, straining the whey with reed mats. In South Asia, milk was coagulated with a variety of fruit acids, such as lemon juice, vinegar or yoghurt and then hung to dry into loafs of paneer. This soft, mild cheese could be added to curries and sauces, or simply fried as a quick vegetarian dish. Greeks produced bricks of salty brined feta cheese, alongside a harder variety similar to today’s pecorino romano. This grating cheese was produced in Sicily and used in dishes all across the Mediterranean. Under Roman rule, “dry cheese” or “caseus aridus,” became an essential ration for the nearly 500,000 soldiers guarding the vast borders of the Roman Empire. And when the Western Roman Empire collapsed, cheese-making continued to evolve in the manors that dotted the Medieval European countryside. In the hundreds of Benedictine monasteries scattered across Europe, medieval monks experimented endlessly with different types of milk, cheese-making practices and ageing processes that led to many of today’s popular cheeses. Parmesan, Roquefort, Munster and several Swiss types were all refined and perfected by these cheese-making clergymen. In the Alps, cheese-making was particularly successful, producing a myriad of cow’s milk cheeses. By the end of the 14th century, Alpine cheese from the Gruyere region of Switzerland had become so profitable that a neighbouring state invaded the Gruyere highlands to take control of the growing cheese trade. Cheese remained popular through Renaissance, and the Industrial Revolution took production out of the monastery and into machinery. Today, the world produces roughly 22 billion kilograms of cheese a year, shipped and consumed around the globe. But 10,000 years after its invention, local farmers are still following in the footsteps of their Neolithic ancestors, hand-crafting one of humanity’s oldest and favourite foods. Comments are closed.
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MORGAN MOTORS GLOSSARY the world over = all over the world craftsmanship = the skill someone uses to make beautiful things with their hands, zanatsko umeće to establish = to found, to create a three-wheeler = a bike or a car that has three wheels, trotočkaš a 4-4 = a " four-by-four", a system in which a car's engine powers all 4 wheels evenly, vozilo sa pogonom na sva četiri točka iconic = important or impressive because it seems to be a symbol of sth core = central, key, essential ash = a kind of a widespread deciduous tree, jasen bespoke = specially made for the customer who orders it, pravljen po narudžbi tailored = fitted, made or produced to fit closely to one's measures, skrojen heritage = qualities, traditions and features that have continued over many years and have been passed on from one generation to another, legacy cutting-edge (adj.) = the latest, most modern, innovative a roadster = a sports car with no roof and only two seats a two-seater = dvosed in excess of = more than to assemble = to put parts together to make the whole approximately = not precisely, not exactly, roughly multiple = more than one significant stake = major part venture capitalist = an investor who provides capital to companies with a high growth potential eponymous = in the title role to facilitate = to make sth easier or more likely to happen Lord Lucan Crime Mystery Glossaryto shroud = surround a situation or an object making it mysterious and secret
subsequent = that comes after or later Earl = grof to grab (the) headlines = get a lot of publicity from media bloodstained = covered with stains of blood a stain = a mark on sth that is difficult to remove, mrlja to burst (into a place) = to enter suddenly with a lot of energy or force Countess = grofica an assault = an attack substantial = big, considerable ground floor = the floor of a building that is level or almost level with the ground outside basement = the floor of a building which is partly or completely below ground level premises = all the buildings and land that something occupies in one place unharmed = not injured or hurt to fetch = go and get to splash = (of a liquid) to hit something and scatter in a lot of small drops to be battered = to be heavily beaten blunt = not sharp lead = soft, grey, heavy metal, olovo, olovni piping = same as pipe, cev to bend/bent, bent = saviti to doze (off) = to sleep lightly usu during the day, to nap, dremati insistently = to keep insisting incoherent = to be talking in a confusing and unclear way a ward of court = pod sudskim starateljstvom to reside = to live or stay somewhere the battery is/was flat = akumulator je (bio) ispražnjen to admit = to allow someone to come in dishevelled = very untidy, unkempt flannels = men's trousers (made of flannel) to sponge (off) = to wipe with a sponge to peep = to have a quick look at something, often secretly ad quietly a smear = a dirty or oily mark to persuade = to talk sbd into doing sth, nagovarati to validate = to confirm or prove that sth is true or correct to abandon = to desert, leave a place bandaged = wrapped, uvijen, umotan CROSSWORD |