Task 2. Cheese.
Cheese is one of those foods that we tend to take for granted as always having been with us, and it's odd to think that someone,
somewhere must have discovered the process that takes place when micro-organisms get into milk and bring about changes in its physical and biochemical structure.
Obviously, we don't know who discovered the process, but it's thought that it came from south-west Asia about 8,000 years ago.
Early cheese was probably rather unpalatable stuff, tasteless and bland in the case of the so-called fresh cheeses,
which are eaten immediately after the milk has coagulated,
and rough-tasting and salty in the case of the ripened cheeses,
which are made by adding salt to the soft fresh cheese and allowing other biochemical processes to continue so that a stronger taste and a more solid texture result.
The ancient Romans changed all that.
They were great pioneers in the art of cheese-making, and the different varieties of cheese they invented
and the techniques for producing them spread with them to the countries they invaded.
This dissemination of new techniques took place between about 60 BC and 300 AD.
You can still trace their influence in the English word "cheese", which comes ultimately from the Latin word "caseus", that's C-A-S-E-U-S.
Well, things went on quietly enough after the Roman period with the cheese producers in the different countries getting on with developing their own specialities.
It's amazing the variety of flavours you can get from essentially the same process.
At this stage in history, people weren't aware in a scientific way of the role of different micro-organisms and enzymes in producing different types of cheese.
But they knew from experience that if you kept your milk or your pre-cheese mixture at a certain temperature
or in a certain environment, things would turn out in a certain way.
The Roquefort caves in France are an example of a place that was used for centuries for the ripening of a certain sort of cheese,
before people knew exactly why they produced the effect they did.
In the 19th century, with the increasing knowledge about micro-organisms, there came the next great step forward in cheese making.
Once it was known exactly which micro-organisms were involved in the different stages of producing a cheese,
and how the presence of different micro-organisms affected the taste, it was possible to introduce them deliberately, and to industrialize the process.
Cheese started being made on a large scale in factories, although the small producer working from his farm dairy continued to exist and still exist today.
Cheese-making moved very much into the world of technology and industrial processes,
although, because the aim is still to produce something that people like to eat, there's still an important role for human judgement.
People still go round and tasting the young cheese at different stages to see how it's getting on, and may add a bit of this or that to improve the final taste.
Whatever the scale of production, there's still room for art alongside the technology.