THE
BIG CHEESE
E I
S F
Cheese boffi n Paul Thomas brings the wonder of cheese to the Edinburgh International Science Festival and tells Will Bain all about the science
behind one of the world’s most beloved foods
C heese: surely one of mankind’s greatest achievements. Imagine a world without it. French culture, actually all culture, would be stil ed; many of the world’s most beloved dishes would be defunct or non-existent; and the Mighty Boosh would never have met Tommy Nookah. What’s more, Stone Age peoples would never have produced enough calories to survive over winter in northern climes, so Scotland wouldn’t be what it is. Cheese has fundamentally shaped our landscapes and societies, so, as great achievements go, it’s dei nitely up there. But how much do we know about it?
We have been making it for thousands of years but when you consider it, cheese is pretty mysterious. A blend of milk, microbes and salt produces everything from banal block cheddar to complex roqueforts p and reblochons. Three ingredients, yet ini nite and reblochons. Three ingredients, yet ini nite q
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variety. There’s no constant; everything from the colour, texture, shape, density, weight, smell and taste, are mutable. How many foods can boast of such variety? There are no commonly eaten mouldy versions of bread. You don’t see much in the way of spreadable coffee, or crumbly ham. So what is it about cheese that makes one taste as different from the next as chalk and, er . . .
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cheesemaking
In April, there’s an opportunity to i nd out, when Cheeseology comes to the Edinburgh International Science Festival. Hosted by cheese polymath Paul Thomas, Cheeseology is dubbed as an ‘exploration of the food science that lies behind the development of l avour in different cheese varieties’. Through a combination of tastings and talks he’ll take microbiology and biochemistry the audience through the behind and behind trace the panoply of l avours in trace t cheese back to their source. chees Thomas is a good man for Tho the job. A biochemist by the j training and pan-European traini cheesemaking consultant by chees profession, he’s on a quest to profe map out the processes that map turn milk and microbes into turn l avour. Cheeseology, he says, l avo ‘will be a simplii ed version ‘will of the day job, rooting out of t the causes of l avours and the textures in cheeses’. It will textu all be illustrated in a delicious all b way way by tastings of salient cheeses from the excellent che Geo George Mewes Cheese. As well as being fodder for wel foo food dorks, this is a chance to to dive deep into why you lik like the cheeses you do, and wh what to look out for when yo you’re buying cheese. A Affable and authoritative, Th Thomas talent for for complex co concepts to life. And, most im importantly, he loves his ch cheese, wistfully recalling ta taste memories of the Irish w washed rinds and perfect st stiltons he worked with d during his four years as a an afi neur at IJ Mellis’s w warehouse on Albion R Road in Edinburgh. He a also loves his science, g going geekishly has bringing
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4 Feb–7 Apr 2016 THE LIST 33 4