Aging Cheese - In The Manure Pile?!

[Lennie]

I have a great uncle who's 92 years old.  Oldest son of Polish immigrants, grew up dirt poor after his father passed when he was 9.  I don't think their family was much worse off when the Depression hit.  Anyway, he enlisted and served in WWII, first in Africa and then Europe.  They spent a fair amount of time in Italy.  Thats the setup for this story.

Last night when he came for supper I told him my new hobby was cheese making.  This triggered a memory for him, he said when he was in Italy the farmers would age their cheese in the manure pile, then cut off the outer part and eat the cheese inside.  He said the soldiers all liked that cheese.

Anyone ever heard of this?  He seemed certain of it, and he's still pretty sharp so I have to think he is accurate.  I wondered if the method wasn't to keep the cheese at a fairly constant warm temperature.

[DeejayDebi]

My Dad used to day that's how they made blue cheese.

[iratherfly]

You know, Crottin is a name of a cheese which loosely translates from French to "Horse dung" so I wouldn't be surprised.
In the history of cheese there have been numerous stories about cheese hidden under unappetizing things. My favorite is the one about French farmers who used to hide cheese from the tax man by removing them from the cellars (where the cheese was counted by the tax man) and hide them under the unassuming piles of ash which was taken from their heating and cooking ovens on previous days. The tax man thought it was trash to be used as fertilizer.  ...It wasn't until they pulled out the cheese that they would discover the lovely controlled acidity and beautiful white mold which bloomed perfectly in record time.

[Lennie]

I asked him if they were hiding it but he seemed pretty sure it was somehow part of the curing process.

John is a fun guy to talk with, he has stories about life back in the old days that are really interesting.  He's not one to tell tall tales or embellish in any way.  I've got a lot of interesting info on homesteading type of stuff like making kraut and butter, storing food without refrigeration, smoking and storing meat, etc.  Plus he used to listen to the radio show that eventually became the Grand Ole Opry, and he's turned me on to old bands like Uncle Dave Mason and the Fruit Jar Guzzlers, and especially to a harmonica player named DeFord Bailey who was one of the first black radio stars.