Roman Footsoldier's writings on cheesemaking

[ybul]

Hello,

I am in search of information as to writings by a roman foot soldier long ago.  I was in class at Cow Poly San Luis Obispo two years ago and the teacher mentioned his writings.  Has any one heard of it and know if one can find a reprint of his material.

Thank you

john

[linuxboy]

Are you thinking of Lucius Columella? He talks about cheesemaking in De Re Rustica. Check out book 7 IIRC. He talks about goats, and then goes on to talk about making a basic hard cheese. It's in the middle of the book somewhere.

I have no idea if it's been translated, so not sure how useful it will be to you. It's been years since I've read it, and my Latin has gone to hell since then.

[dthelmers]

I have that excerpt from Columella. Is there a good place to post it? I also have Pliny the Elder's list of cheeses.
Dave in CT

[Boofer]

I have that excerpt from Columella. Is there a good place to post it? I also have Pliny the Elder's list of cheeses.
Dave in CT

How large are these? Could you attach them to a posting on this thread? A pdf or MSWord doc would be good.

I'm curious about them both.

-Boofer-

[dthelmers]

Here are excerpts from Columella, Varro, and Pliny. Columella describes the process, Varro a bit of the process and what kinds of cheese are best, while Pliny lists the cheeses available at the time in Rome.
Dave in CT

[pliezar (Ian)]

Thank you for posting these!  They were an interesting read.  It is intetesting that these three writers thought it important enought tp write about cheese.

Cheers

[dthelmers]

I'm interested in the pressing and salting schedule that Columella describes, pressing for nine days. Does pressing the cheese for that amount of time really make a difference? I would think that after the initial pressing it would have compacted as much as it was going to.
Dave in CT