To
say that humans and cheese have had a long
and loving relationship is a
bit of an
understatement. Since time immemorial,
we've been coaxing
curds and whey into a
mind-boggling array of fantastic cheeses, fresh,
aged,
and at times freakish.
Today on Cutting the Curd, we have the
privilege of talking with professor Paul Kinstedt
about his new book'Cheese & Culture'
which will make its debut in March of this year
from Chelsea Green
Publishing. The book chronicles
our rich and buttery cheese history, all
the way back
to the fertile crescent. Here are some of our favorite
historical accounts of famous cheesemakers and cheese
eaters that you
may not (or may very well have!)
heard before, compliments of Mr.
Kindstedt's research...
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| Monster or Cheesemaker? |
In Homer's 'The Odyssey'
Odysseus and his crew land on
the isle of
Sicilyin search of the
feared and terrible Cyclops.
They galumph around
for a
while until they find his dwelling
place which, SURPRISE! is home
to a tidy little cheesemaking
operation. The heroes hide out in
the
cave untilthe Cyclopsreturns
(as my sister Megan
would say,a
potentially bad life
choice) but luckily for them, the monster doesn't
see them and begins his daily ritual of making cheese, coagulating the
curd and pressing it into woven baskets.
Moral of the story:
Don't hate on monsters. They like cheese too!
Fast
forward to France in the year AD 800-ish.
The Emperor Charlemagne and
his entourage are
trekkingthrough France, probably en route to some
medieval military special ops. They get waylaid,
and stop at a monastery
for the night. The abbot,
being rightly surprised by their arrival, is
forced to
make a fancy dinner party on the fly.
(Remember this story the
next time you're stressed
about people coming over for dinner... at
least
they're not Charlemagne.) Now, it being a last minute thing,
and
the fact being that good Catholics don't eat meat on
certain days made
for a pretty tough dinner order for the
abbot to fill. He sagely
concluded that they'd serve cheese
for dinner, and brought out a stinky
wheel of something
or other for the nobility to enjoy.
 |
| Why didn't I eat the rind?! |
|
|
So,
the story goes that Charlemagne
dug into the cheese with great relish,
cutting off the rind and scooping out
the gooey paste within. The abbot
watched in dismay, and after a few
more bites, dared to inquire what in
the heck the Emperor thought he was
doing. In a nice way of course. The
gist of the conversation was
something like this:
'Why are you cutting
off the rind, sir?
Don't you know that's the best part?!'
Moral of that story: Eat the rind.
Monks know a thing or two about cheese.
Tune
in to Cutting the Curd today from 5:30 to 6:00 for a
sneak peak at this
incredible new book, and stay tuned for
an NYC book release party with
Saxelby Cheesemongers!
Till next week, eat cheese and be merry!
____________________________________________________
Got questions for Cutting the Curd?
Ideas for future shows?
Tell us what you want to hear!
Email us at info@heritageradionetwork.com!
________________________________________________________________
Gotta give a gift?
Send the gift of cheese
to someone you love!
Visit saxelbycheese.com
for our full selection of
cheesy packages,
gift certificates,
and more!
We ship all across the country,
so what are you waiting for?
________________________________________________________________
saxelbycheese.com
saxelbycheese.blogspot.com
Check out Saxelby Cheesemongers as featured in the New York Times!
 |
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