On Food and Cooking

Early shepherds would have discovered the
major transformations of milk in their first
containers. When milk is left to stand, fat-
enriched cream naturally forms at the top, and
if agitated, the cream becomes butter. The
remaining milk naturally turns acid and
curdles into thick yogurt, which draining
separates into solid curd and liquid whey.
Salting the fresh curd produces a simple,
long-keeping cheese. As dairyers became
more adept and harvested greater quantities of
milk, they found new ways to concentrate and
preserve its nourishment, and developed
distinctive dairy products in the different
climatic regions of the Old World.
In arid southwest Asia, goat and sheep
milk was lightly fermented into yogurt that
could be kept for several days, sun-dried, or
kept under oil; or curdled into cheese that
could be eaten fresh or preserved by drying or
brining. Lacking the settled life that makes it
possible to brew beer from grain or wine from