What is the indispensable cultural status of cheese in western food, and what trade disputes have arisen?

Cheese occupies a very important position in western culture, and all kinds of dishes in western food are inseparable from cheese. How to match different flavors of cheese with different meals and drinks is a very high knowledge.

In recent years, influenced by the network celebrity food, "cheese fever" swept across China instantly. Cheese used to make pizza is very popular because of its soft taste. Of course it's easy to understand. Even blue cheese and goat cheese, once regarded as dark dishes by Chinese people, have gradually become foods that young people are willing to try.

Cheese, also known as cheese and cheese ingredients, has suddenly become an important element in the new generation of food culture in China.

In fact, on the other side of Eurasia, cheese has long been integrated into the blood of people who make a living from animal husbandry, and is closely integrated with the development of human civilization. If grain nourishes the civilization of East Asia, then the culture of Central Asia and Western Europe is closely related to cheese.

Cheese is called the earliest "processed food". It is said that people inadvertently put milk into pottery and found that it would turn sour and solidify after being sealed for a period of time, thus learning to make cheese by natural fermentation.

The birth of cheese is of great significance: in fact, in the early days of mankind, only babies could produce lactase necessary for digesting lactose in milk, and most adults suffered from lactose intolerance. Adults gradually began to have genes that can digest lactase, at the latest after 550 BC.

Therefore, cheese that decomposed lactic acid and whey during fermentation was more easily digested by people at that time and became the most important source of protein in that era.

The earliest appearance of cheese is still controversial, but it is certain that the invention of cheese should be later than when humans raised livestock around 6000 BC. This ancient food can be seen in early civilizations all over the world: for example, in the murals of ancient Egypt, images of making early cheese were found.

In Arab folklore, there is a description that Arabs occasionally find cheese: "I put milk in a leather bag made of sheep's belly and hang it on the camel's back." After a day's travel, I tried to drink the milk in the bag again, but at this time, the milk in the bag turned into watery liquid and some white substances. When I tried to eat that white lump, I found it extremely delicious, unbelievable! "

When cheese culture was pushed to a new height, it can be traced back to the Mesopotamian plain after the second century BC, when Mesopotamian civilization was booming and animal husbandry was particularly developed in the northern region.

Just as the wine culture in Longshan, China originated from a large amount of grain hoarding, the developed animal husbandry in the crescent zone also made it possible to hoard milk, and with the introduction of pottery, the cheese culture that influenced human civilization for thousands of years came into being.

Since then, cheese making technology has spread rapidly: from the land of the new moon to Egypt and Anatolia, and then to the Greek peninsula; Then it gradually spread from the Greek Peninsula to the Celtic tribes in Central Europe and was brought to Northern Europe by nomadic people. ...

Since then, the whole Eurasian civilization has been associated with cheese.

On the other hand, the early cheese technology did not take root in China, Indian and other places in the East, and the reason is still debated by scholars.

It is speculated that Indian hot climate may make it difficult to produce cheese, while China's advanced grain planting technology makes it unnecessary to rely on dairy products for nutrition. Of course, some people speculate that the confrontation between agricultural civilization and nomadic civilization led to the obstruction of cheese spread.

However, in the midwest of Eurasia, cheese has always existed as an important food, and it has even been endowed with religious significance.

In ancient Mesopotamian mythology, there was a big confrontation between "cheese" and "grain": the farmer holding the grain and the shepherd holding the cheese proposed to the goddess Inanna at the same time. Inanna was partial to farmers at first, but the herdsmen persuaded her to give her something better, so the fertility goddess of Mesopotamia finally fell into the arms of shepherds. The shepherd became king and exchanged gifts with the farmer as a sign of friendship.

As reflected in this story, in Mesopotamian culture, as a cheese maker, the working process of "shepherd" was linked with the "manufacturing" of kingship and was given a detached color.

This preference for "cheese" in Mesopotamian culture was also inherited by Christianity. According to Christian classics, Abraham prepared dishes made of cheese, milk and beef to welcome God's visit. Cheese, as a medium of communication between man and God, has become a prominent element in western religious culture.

The food cheese invented and manufactured by human beings has become the medium for religious saints to communicate with God in religion, which just proves that religion is derived from the way of human production and communication.

Although cheese plays an important role in human food, early cheese may not taste very good (even feel sour) because it is mostly naturally fermented. In the Roman Empire, the use of chymosin solidified cheese without acidification, which greatly enhanced the flavor of cheese, so at that time, cheese became the "fixed food" of Roman soldiers' rations.

Interestingly, the gourmet who made cheese with chymosin turned out to be Tertullianus, a philosopher and one of the founders of Latin and Western religions and theology. He not only laid an important milestone for the cheese making technology in Europe, but also opened his mind and gave the cheese making process a certain "philosophical" significance.

He compared the conception of the Virgin Mary with the phenomenon of cheese curdling automatically, and thought that Jesus was born out of thin air in Mary's womb (you can imagine cheese curdling automatically in a bucket). In other words, the birth of Jesus is a miracle created by God, just as cheese was created from nothing, and Jesus was "condensed" by God's will.

I have to say that Tertullianus's argument is too strong.

With the rapid popularization of chymosin, a new production technology, in the Roman Empire, and the establishment of slave pastures brought about by the expansion of the empire, the production of cheese reached a peak: the upper class in the city became the main consumers of cheese, and various cheese recipes were designed with olive oil and wine.

After the collapse of the Roman Empire, cheese making spread to manors all over Europe, and various cheese making techniques were mastered by lords and monks, and more branches were exhibited.

But in the13rd century, due to the spread of European plague, the cheese production tended to shrink. Fortunately, the traditional cheese-making skills have been preserved in Central Europe, and small farmers have become the main producers of cheese. At present, Switzerland, Belgium and other places are still continuing the ancient mountain cheese making skills, and the famous Parmesan cheese is its representative.

However, with the prosperity of the British enclosure movement and the emergence of a large number of sheep, cheese was exported to Africa as a by-product, and Cheddar cheese and Cheshire cheese originating in Britain were also brought to all parts of the world.

On the other hand, the Netherlands, which is also famous for the export of livestock products, has also become an important country of origin of cheese, and the world-famous Haoda cheese and Hongbo cheese are its representative products.

Today, Britain and the Netherlands are still fighting for the hegemony of the world cheese market. As early as19th century, British people who are sensitive to market trends took the lead in introducing low-fat and low-calorie cheese in order to seize more market share. The Netherlands, on the other hand, chose to maintain a high level of Gouda cheese production technology, and to compete with it by adding spices with unique flavor. Therefore, the reputation of British cheese has gradually declined.

At that time, the dark horse of the cheese production market, the United States, began to produce cheese on a large scale with a large number of black cheap labor.

Since the middle of19th century, the establishment of mechanized cheese factory has made American cheddar cheese popular in the market. Since then, immigrants from all over Europe have brought the cheese-making technology from different regions to the United States, making the cheap cheese in the United States squeeze the living space of those old European cheeses.

This kind of hooliganism in the United States was dissatisfied by many Europeans, and a cheese trade dispute was staged.

There is constant friction between the United States and the European Union on the intellectual property protection of cheese in the World Trade Organization: the European Union does not recognize American cheddar cheese as authentic, so many Europeans are proud to inherit the traditional cheese making skills. On the other hand, Americans also realize that it seems that the latter kind of cheese is more "advanced", which also intensifies the economic friction and national identity derived from cheese.

The dispute over cheese lasted until 1992, when the PDO Act, namely the Food Protection Law of EU Member States, was passed.

However, the dispute between the United States and European countries over the name of cheese is still fierce today: for example, in 20 14, American kraft parmesan cheese was sued by the European Parliament for borrowing the name of Italian parmesan cheese, but it was strongly resisted by kraft manufacturers.

In fact, according to PDO standards, most cheese produced by American manufacturers in the market must face the pressure of renaming, which is undoubtedly absurd and unreasonable for American manufacturers.

From ancient Mesopotamian civilization to today's cheese trade disputes, cheese can be said to have witnessed countless cycles of human development, expansion, division and friction. Next time, when you pick up a piece of cheese from the supermarket shelf, you can take a closer look at all kinds of information behind it, such as the origin and manufacturer. Every word contains a history of human civilization intertwined with food.