Cheese

Appears in

Published 2004

About

Cheese is one of the great achievements of humankind. Not any cheese in particular, but cheese in its astonishing multiplicity, created anew every day in the dairies of the world. Cheese began as a simple way of concentrating and preserving the bounty of the milking season. Then the attentiveness and ingenuity of its makers slowly transformed it into something more than mere physical nourishment: into an intense, concentrated expression of pastures and animals, of microbes and time.

Unusual Fermented Milks: Koumiss and Kefir

Because milk contains an appreciable amount of the sugar lactose, it can be fermented like grape juice and other sugary fluids into an alcoholic liquid. This fermentation requires unusual lactose-fermenting yeasts (species of Saccharomyces, Torula, Candida, and Kluyveromyces). For thousands of years, the nomads of central Asia have made koumiss from mare’s milk, which is especially rich in lactose, and this tart, effervescent drink, with 1–2% alcohol and 0.5–1% acid, remains very popular there and in Russia. Other European and Scandinavian peoples have made alcoholic products from other milks, as well as sparkling “wine” from whey.

Another remarkable fermented milk little known in the West is kefir, which is most popular in the Caucasus and may well have originated there. Unlike other fermented milks, in which the fermenting microbes are evenly dispersed, kefir is made by large, complex particles known as kefir grains, which house a dozen or more kinds of microbes, including lactobacilli, lactococci, yeasts, and vinegar bacteria. This symbiotic association grows at cool room temperatures to produce a tart, slightly alcoholic, effervescent, creamy product.