If you’re looking for the world’s oldest – and deadliest – cheese, you may want to start looking in ancient Egyptian tombs. Archaeologists just found what they think is the world’s oldest cheese inside a 3,200-year-old Egyptian tomb.
The cheese was found alongside the Mayor of ancient Egypt’s capital of Memphis. The tomb had been lost under the desert for quite some time and was only discovered in 2010. Thing is, cheese connoisseurs won’t be doing a taste test anytime soon since the cheese is contaminated with a bacteria called Brucella melitensis (it causes the disease brucellosis, also called Mediterranean fever).
Researchers determined the substance was cheese with tests that concluded it was a dairy product made from cow, sheep or goat milk. “The characteristics of the canvas fabric which indicated it was suitable for containing a solid support the conclusion that the dairy product was a solid cheese,” they write. Cheese does get finer with age, but… you should probably pass on this one.
Source: Daily Mail