Cheese facts for kids

Mixed cheeses ready to eat

A goat cheese from France

Blue cheese

Cheese is a yummy dairy food made from milk. There are so many kinds of cheese! Think of cheddar, Swiss, and provolone.

Many things change how a cheese looks, feels, tastes, and its color. These include the type of milk used (like cow or goat milk). It also matters if the milk was pasteurized (heated to kill germs). The amount of butterfat, tiny bacteria, and even mold can change it. How the cheese is made, how much fat it has, and how old it is also play a big part. For example, some cheeses are soft and fresh, while others are hard and aged for years!

The Story of Cheese

Cheese is a very old food. People were making it even before history was written down! We don't know exactly where cheesemaking started. It could have been in Europe, Central Asia, or the Middle East. Some think it began around 8000 BCE, when sheep were first tamed.

The oldest proof of cheesemaking is from about 5500 BCE in what is now Kuyavia, Poland. Scientists found old strainers with milk fat on them. This shows people were making cheese a long, long time ago!

Cheesemaking might have started as a way to keep milk from spoiling. People would press and salt milk that had gone lumpy. Early pictures of Egyptian cheese were found in old Egyptian tombs from around 2000 BCE. In 2018, scientists found what they think is the world's oldest cheese in an ancient Egyptian tomb. It was about 3200 years old!

The first cheeses were probably quite sour and salty. They might have been like cottage cheese or feta, which is a crumbly Greek cheese. In Europe, where it's cooler, cheese needed less salt to stay good. With less salt, good microbes and molds could grow. These tiny helpers give aged cheeses their special flavors. The oldest preserved cheese ever found was in China. It was about 3600 years old!

How Cheese is Made

Cheese starts with milk. The most common milk comes from cows, goats, and sheep. But you can also use milk from buffalo, camels, or even donkeys! Cheesemakers usually cook the milk in big pots.

Most cheeses are made a bit sour by special bacteria. These bacteria turn the milk's sugar into lactic acid. This makes the milk start to thicken.

Next, Salt is added. Then, a special ingredient called rennet is often used. Rennet helps the milk curdle and become solid. Some cheesemakers use other ways to curdle the milk instead of rennet. For example, vegetarian rennet can be made from a fungus or from plants like the Cynara