Cheese
Cheese is a solidified dairy product where the curds are separated from the whey. Though most cheese is made from the cow's milk, a number of other animals are also cheese-producers:
Types of Cheese
- Goat's milk (e.g. Feta)
- Ewe's milk (e.g. Roquefort)
- Buffalo's milk (Mozzarella)
- In Tibet, yak's milk.
- Historically, the Mongols made cheese from mare's milk.
Cheese History
France is especially renowned as a cheese producer, and their president Charles de Gaulle famously said : "how can a country with 300 different kinds of cheese agree on anything?". However, many French cheeses are made from unpasteurised milk and their transport across international borders is therefore forbidden for health reasons. Certain French cheeses (such as Epoisses) are so smelly that their carriage even on French public transport is also banned.[Citation Needed]
There are many types of cheese: cheddar, American, feta, muenster, monterary jack.
In England, the traditional sport of cheese-rolling remains locally popular. [1]
Cheese is considered by some as a palliative for various internal diseases.
Cheese in Culture
James McIntyre (, a Canadian poet, was fond of writing poems and odes to cheese. This is not because he thought the subject was funny, or ironic. Rather, McIntyre saw cheese production in Canada as a symbol of the strong growth in the Canadian economy. Man people today find his works quite humorous, but McIntyre's "Ode on a Mammoth Cheese" is considered by most poetry scholars not only his best work, but his ultimate achievement.
Ode on the Mammoth Cheese
We have seen the Queen of cheese,
Laying quietly at your ease,
Gently fanned by evening breeze --
Thy fair form no flies dare seize.
All gaily dressed soon you'll go
To the great Provincial Show,
To be admired by many a beau
In the city of Toronto.
Cows numerous as a swarm of bees --
Or as the leaves upon the trees --
It did require to make thee please,
And stand unrivalled Queen of Cheese.
May you not receive a scar as
We have heard that Mr. Harris
Intends to send you off as far as
The great World's show at Paris.
Of the youth -- beware of these --
For some of them might rudely squeeze
And bite your cheek; then songs or glees
We could not sing o' Queen of Cheese.
We'rt thou suspended from baloon,
You'd cast a shade, even at noon;
Folks would think it was the moon
About to fall and crush them soon.
James McIntyre