[Sca-cooks] Period sources for cheese - extract from West-Cooks by Eibhlin

K C Francis katiracook at hotmail.com
Thu Sep 6 16:14:25 PDT 2007


This was put into the files section of the West-Cooks egroup about 4 years 
ago.  Enjoy.

PERIOD CHEESES

    * Appenzeller, (Switzerland).  Noted as being one of Switzerland's 
oldest cheeses, it dates back to Charlemagne.
    * Beaufort (AOC), (France, Savoie).  Mentioned in Roman times.
    * Bellelay, (Switzerland).  This cheese is now known as Tete-de-Moine.  
It was renamed during the French Revolution, was originally named after a 
monastery in the Jura mountains.
    * Brie de Meaux (AOC), (France, Ile-de-France).  Mentioned as early as 
774 when it was served to Charlemagne.
    * Cantal (AOC), (France, Auvergne). This is one of the oldest of the 
French cheeses, dating back to the 12th century.
    * Castlemagno, (Italy).  This cheese was mentioned in 1277 as a unit of 
exchange.
    * Cheshire, (Great Britain).  54 BC - the method for making it was 
brought to England by the Romans
    * Comte, (Switzerland).  1267 AD
    * Cottage Cheese, very common, early to late period.
    * Emmental, (Switzerland).  This cheese can be traced back to 1293, but 
was first mentioned by name in 1542, when it was given to the people of 
Langethal whose lives had been devastated by fire.
    * Farmers Cheese, very common.  It's just unprocessed curds that have 
been salted and packaged.
    * Feta, (Greece).  1184 AD
    * Fontina, (Italy).  13th cent.(haven't verified this one)
    * Fribourgeois, (Switzerland).  According to local documents, it was 
served to the wife of Duke Sigismund of Austria in 1448.
    * Gorgonzola, (Italy).  879 AD (haven't verified this one)
    * Gouda, (Holland).  An ancient cheese, its history dates from the sixth 
century, when it was made on small farms around the village of Gouda.  It 
has been exported since the 13th Century.
    * Grana, (Italy).  1200 AD (parmesan and romano are of this family)
    * Gruyere, (Switzerland, Fribourg).  In 1115 a quantity of Gruyere was 
recorded as the thithe paid by local farmers to the monks of Rougement 
Abbey.
    * Mariolles (AOC), (France, Flanders).  Made as early as the 10th 
Century at the Abbaye de Mariolles.
    * Münster, (Germany).  In the Middle Ages the cheese was made by the 
monks at Munster Abbey in modern day Alsace.  When Alsace became part of 
Germany, the name of the ceeses gained an umlaut, it became Münster, after 
the Wesphalian town.  Ownership of Alsace switched from Germany to France 
several times after that, but the cheese continued to be made on both sides 
of the border.
    * Parmesan, (Italy).  1200-1300 AD
    * Quark, (Germany).  Simply means "curd" in German, and the cheese is 
said to date from the Iron Age, when nomadic tribes discovered the means of 
fermenting the milk without the use of Rennet.
    * Ricotta, known throughout period
    * Romano, (Italy).  1200-1300 AD
    * Roquefort, (France).  1070 AD - but is under debate!
    * Saint-Marcellin, (France).  Served to royalty as early as 1461.  In 
those days it would probably have been made with goat's milk.
    * Sapsago, (Italy).  16th cent.
    * Sbrinz, (Switzerland). Is thought to be the cheese referred to by 
Pliny the Elder as Caseus Helveticus in his writings of the 1st Century AD.
    * Slipcoat cheese, (Great Britain).
    * Wensleydale, (Great Britain).  1150 AD
    * Yogurt, known througout period


NON-PERIOD CHEESES

    * Camembert, developed in 1791 by Marie Fontaine. The cheese Napoleon 
ate was not what we know as Camembert.
    * Cheddar, because of the cheddaring process, which was created during 
the Industrial Revolution, is late 18th century.  There is a cheese that was 
known in period that was called Cheddar, but it was an *entirely* different 
cheese from what we know today.
    * Edam, 18th cent.
    * Gloucester, 1697 AD
    * Port-Salut, 1865 AD
    * Stilton, 1750 AD


List compiled and researched by Lady Eibhlin nic'Raghailligh, mundanely 
known as Kathleen Madsen.  Feel free to email with questions or comments.  
kmadsen12000 at yahoo dot com.


Katira



>From: Lilinah <lilinah at earthlink.net>
>Reply-To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
>To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
>Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Period sources for cheese
>Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2007 10:47:41 -0700
>
>Perhaps what some of us would like to see is a list of cheeses that
>were made in period and still available in a form like, or close to,
>that of the past.
>
>--
>Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
>the persona formerly known as Anahita
>_______________________________________________
>Sca-cooks mailing list
>Sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
>http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/sca-cooks-ansteorra.org

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