I love cheese - hard, soft, blue or stinky - and Camembert is one of mankind's greatest inventions. I have discovered Medieval monks loved cheese too and it has been fun to investigate their part in its origin and development. I hope this little article will come to mind next time you enjoy your Wensleydale or a fine Munster.
I always believed that it was an Arab travelling over the desert on his camel who first discovered that the milk in his travel bag seemed to have gone off, and to his surprise found this strange aberration tasted rather good. The Arabs did bring their goats and cheese-making implements into southern France around the 8th century, but cheesemaking was around long before this. The Romans knew about it and it may have been the Christian monasteries who perpetuated it along with so much classical culture, after the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century. The little video below is a good introduction.
Cheese became so important in monastic life because it fitted : sheep, cows, goats in their farms provided an obvious source ; it could be part of their duty to care for it ; and it was good as a meat substitute.
The Rule of St Benedict include labor (Latin - work - the work of your own hands). Here was something even a choir monk could do eg. assist with storage and preservation. The Kitchener would oversee the care of the cheeses : ensuring no sticky bottoms, patting and rubbing or washing to stem growth of unwanted mould or mites. The Refectorian (who assisted the Cellarer) would have as part of his job to sample cheeses. Monasteries needed to be self-sufficient as far as possible, so farms (called granges) developed. Benedictine monasteries tended to delegate their granges to tenants, whereas Cistercians ran theirs directly using lay brothers. The Cistercians were the most important Order in the history of cheese. Their foundations in secluded rural valleys also embraced centrally controlled large granges.
Monks are particularly known for what is called washed rind cheeses. There is a legend that says monks saw mould growing on cheese and so they scrubbed it with diluted alcohol or brine. They may have done this several times and then discovered that the the rind became reddish orange and emitted a new stink. This was because a bacteria called Brevibacterium linens liked these conditions and grew apace there. It is similar with the sweaty parts of our bodies, and hence stinky socks or bad armpits can remind you of these cheeses. Munster from Alsace Lorraine is an early example from around 1370. Epoisses (washed in brine and brandy) from Cistercian monasteries in Burgundy is another.
The milk produced could become cheese or butter. It would be easier to create these in the granges rather than transport the milk to the monastery itself. The actual making of the cheese was often done by women (just like beer). In monastic accounts they are known as deyes. Originally deye meant woman servant but their common involvement with cheesemaking led to their workplace becoming known as dairy. Katherine Dowe was the deye at the Cistercian Sibton Abbey in Suffolk. She had an assistant called Alice Harys and three servants. We know that in 1507 she earnt £1 a year, Alice 10 shillings and the servants 8 shillings. King Henry VIII spent £7000 on 12 days of Christmas celebration two years later! Katherine was good at her job and in 6 years their cow herd increased from 66 to 166. It is also recorded that in one year she 156 lbs of cheese and 3 gallons of butter per cow. Cheese was big business as we shall see.
If women ruled the cheese making we can wonder how the lay brothers felt about this and how they behaved. The Premonstratensians decreed that women who worked at their granges had to be "such of whom no possibility of suspicion could possibly be entertained. The Prior of the Augustinian Bolton Priory in Yorkshire wanted only "old and ill-favoured women to be employed".
Monastic cheese making was international. Recipes and methods travelled across Europe. In particular Cistercian monasteries were interconnected and knowledge was exchanged. Wensleydale may have originated at Jervaux Abbey in Yorkshire (Cistercian) but was it from a recipe at Citeaux Abbey in Burgundy and was it originally a creamy blue like Roquefort? There is also a tradition that Irish monks took cheesemaking recipes across to Germany before the 11th century.
Cheese became an important part of the monastic economy. Payment could be made in cheese. The English Priory of Ogbourne in Wiltshire sent 8550 lbs of cheese as rent to the Abbot of Bec (Normandy) in payment for stewardship of land owned by him. The cheese industry in the country was greatly helped by monastic participation. Royalty bought their cheeses. For example Queen Elizabeth, wife of Henry VII regularly bought cheese from Llanthony Priory (Monmouthshire) in the early 16th century.
Today there is still cheese made on monastic premises. The little video below tells about Chimay, a Trappist (modern Cistercian)house.
This one below introduces Chimay's wonderful strong beer and the cheese.
The book below written by a cheesemonger (published 2019)is highly recommended! I must have met him selling cheese on Borough Market in London. A really good read.
