Cheese and Culture

A History of Cheese and Its Place in Western Civilization Paul Kindstedt

$24.95 US Hardcover ISBN 9781603584111 6 x 9 272 pages Pub Date: April 15, 2012

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Cheese and Culture is the book both cheese professionals and cheese geeks have been waiting for. Professor Kindstedt gives us the mostly untold history of cheese and its societal import from 6500 BC to the present, answering all my cheese questionseven the ones I didnt know I had. Cheese and Culture is the most comprehensive cheese book ever written by an American, a great addition to our collective cheese library. Gordon Edgar, cheese buyer, Rainbow Grocery Cooperative, San Francisco, and author of Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge

Behind every traditional type of cheese there lies a fascinating story of how it came to be. By examining the role of the cheesemaker throughout world history, and by exploring a few basic principles of cheese science and technology, author Paul Kindstedt (American Farmstead Cheese) offers this uniquely focused and in-depth look at cheese, its origins and development, from prehistoric times to the present day. How have different cheeses been shaped by their natural environment (or terroir) and defined by their social and cultural context? Who were the people who made these cheeses, who consumed them, what role did they play in local economies and trade? Cheese and Culture answers all these questions and at the same time advances our appreciation of cheese by viewing human history through the eyes of an inquisitive scientist. Kindstedt leads the reader down some intriguing, yet little-traveled, pathways, revealing facts such as these: Ancient peoples relied upon cheese, not only because it preserved the nutritious liquid milk of domestic animals, but also because, in these early times, almost all human adults were lactose-intolerant. The early Christian church clamped down on certain heretics who insisted that cheese, not bread, should properly be used in the sacrament of Holy Communion. Enslaved African-Americans, especially women, once played a key role as cheesemakers in areas of 17th and 18th century New England, whose exports to plantations in the South and the West Indies contributed to the notorious triangle trafficking of rum and human beings.

The author also tells a larger story, a sweeping narrative that binds all cheeses together into a single history, one that started with the discovery of cheese making in the Neolithic Age and that is still unfolding to this day. Cheese and Culture reconstructs that 9000-yearold story based on the often fragmentary information that we have available. The book offers a useful lens through which to view our 21st century attitudes toward cheese that we have inherited from our past, and our attitudes toward food in general. Exhaustively researched, yet highly readable, this refreshingly original work will appeal to anyone who loves history, food, and, especially, good cheese. Paul Kindstedt is a professor of food science in the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences at the University of Vermont. He has authored numerous research articles and conference proceedings on dairy chemistry and cheese science, as well as many book chapters. He is also the coauthor of American Farmstead Cheese (2005) with the Vermont Cheese Council and has received national professional recognition for both his research and teaching. Kindstedt currently serves as the codirector of the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese at the University of Vermont.

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