The exact origins of cheesemaking are unknown, and estimates range from around 8000 BCE (around the time sheep were domesticated) to around 3000 BCE. It was most probably discovered by nomadic Turkic tribes in Central Asia, contemporaneous with their discovery of yogurt, or by people in the Middle East. Another common story about its discovery has an Arab nomad carrying milk across the desert in a container lined with an animal's stomach only to discover the milk had separated into curd and whey by the rennet from the animal's stomach. The ancient Greeks believed that Aristaeus discovered cheese.
However, cheese most likely began as a way of preserving soured and curdled milk through pressing and salting. Rennet may have been introduced when someone noticed that cheese made in an animal stomach produced more solid and better-textured curds. The earliest archaeological evidence of cheesemaking has been found in Egyptian tomb murals, dating to about 2300 BCE. The earliest cheeses would likely have been quite sour and salty, similar in texture to rustic cottage cheese or feta.
From the Middle East, basic cheesemaking found its way into Europe, where cooler climates meant less aggressive salting was needed for preservation. With moderate salt and acidity, the cheese became a suitable environment for a variety of beneficial microbes and molds. These are what give aged cheeses their pronounced and interesting flavors.
By Roman times, cheesemaking was a mature art, not very different from what it is today. Pliny's Natural History devotes a chapter to cheeses. In the early Empire, Romans considered the best cheeses to come from the villages round Nîmes; these cheeses did not keep long and had to be eaten fresh. Cheeses of the Alps and Apennines were remarkable for their variety then, as now. The Ligurian cheese of Ceba (Civa) was noted for being mostly made from the milk of sheep. Goatsmilk cheese was a recent taste in Rome, improved by smoking. Of cheeses from overseas, the Romans preferred those of Bithynia in Asia Minor.
After the decline of Rome, cheese in Europe diversified further as long-distance trade collapsed and various locales developed their own distinctive cheesemaking traditions and products. France and Italy are the nations with the most diversity in locally made cheeses— with approximately 400 each. According to a French proverb, there is a different French cheese for every day of the year.
The first factory for the industrial production of cheese opened in Switzerland on February 3, 1815. Factory-made cheese overtook traditional cheesemaking in the World War II era, and factories have been the source of most cheese in America and Europe ever since. Today, Americans buy more processed cheese than "real", factory-made or not.
