Doesn’t mum sometimes say that if you so don’t want to have a glass of milk have a slice of cheese instead! Does that give you some idea what cheese could be made of? Guess? If you guessed milk you guessed it right!

But then how is it made from milk? Who made it for the very first time? Read on.

In ancient times, unlike these days, cows, sheep and goats  gave milk only in that part of the year when they had their babies. And it was mostly in the spring. After a while there was no milk. But milk was an important source of fat and protein for the ancient people. So they thought of preserving it. This way they could have it all throughout the year. This is when cheese was invented!

Did you know that the simplest kind of cheese is yogurt. Yogurt forms when a fungi called yeast gets into the milk from the air.  The yeast eat only the lactose – a kind of sugar in the milk, and converts it into lactic acid. This lactic acid in turn changes all the protein remaining in the milk into a solid lump.

Some bacteria can really spoil the milk but like yeast there are many other different good bacteria. They can turn milk into different kinds of cheese that can last longer. Some of these different types of cheese can be kept without being refrigerated for four or five years or even more !!

Cheesy Fact-
Cheese was really more discovered than invented thousands of years ago!