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CHEESE

The first reference to cheese making was about 3,600 years ago when Job in poetic language figuratively described how he had been formed in his mother’s womb, saying to the Grand Creator: “Did you not proceed to pour me out as milk itself and like cheese to curdle me?”—Job 10:10.

Making cheese differed from making butter; the latter was obtained by churning. To make cheese in ancient times milk was quickly curdled with rennet from an animal’s stomach or with juice of certain leaves or roots. After curdling, the whey was drained off and the fresh curds were eaten.

David was instructed to take “ten portions of milk” to the chief of the thousand under whom his brothers served in Saul’s army. (1 Sam. 17:17, 18) The literal reading of the original is “ten cuts of milk,” which may have meant “ten fresh-milk cheeses.” Rotherham’s rendering based on certain manuscripts is “ten slices of soft cheese.” During the civil war instigated by Absalom, friends sent David provisions of food, including “curds of cattle,” and these too may have been soft cheeses. (2 Sam. 17:29) In apostolic times, according to Josephus, there was the “valley of the cheesemakers” separating the upper and lower sections of Jerusalem.