On Food and Cooking

became a hospitable medium for the
continuing growth and activity of a variety of
microbes and their enzymes. In a sense,
cheese came to life. It became capable of
pronounced development and change; it
entered the cyclical world of birth,
maturation, and decline.
When were modern cheeses born? We
don’t really know, but it was well before
Roman times. In his Rei rusticae (“On Rustic
Matters,” about 65 CE), Columella describes at
length what amounts to standard
cheesemaking practice. The curdling was done
with rennet or various plant fluids. The whey
was pressed out, the curds sprinkled with salt,
and the fresh cheese put in a shady place to
harden. Salting and hardening were repeated,
and the ripe cheese was then washed, dried,
and packed for storage and shipping. Pliny,
who also wrote in the first century, said that
Rome most esteemed cheeses from its
provincial outposts, especially Nîmes in