4 ms·
>You hear stories about people trying everything when they're out of food, maybe trying the cow's milk was a sort of last resort that worked for some lucky peop
by grawprog 6y ago
>You hear stories about people trying everything when they're out of food, maybe trying the cow's milk was a sort of last resort that worked for some lucky people. Then again, you'd think they'd have eaten the cow first.
Maybe it was more desperation from waiting for cheese or something? I'm guessing if they kept milk cattle and didn't eat it they had a reason?
Cheese seems like something that cows would be used for. It's easy to make, it comes from curdled cream, it stores for long periods, and it's calorie dense.
Maybe milk drinking came at a time of extreme hunger where people just drank it directly instead of waiting?
- srtjstjsj 6y agoCheese has about the same lactose as milk, doesn't it?
- rwh86 6y agoHard cheeses contain almost no lactose; it's consumed by bacteria during the maturation process.
- njarboe 6y agoA way to store a surplus food that contains high protean and fat is another huge benefit of dairy. Hard cheeses can be stored for years in the right conditions and these conditions are achievable for ancient people (caves).
- eru 6y agoAnd if done right, the cheese becomes tastier as it ages. Not as important today, but more important back then: aging your cheese also concentrates the salt. Salty foods are tasty.
- njarboe 6y agoGood point. Back then salt was valuable in places just short distances from the ocean. Humans need salt, especially when doing hard physical labor, sweating all day.
- grawprog 6y agorwh86 is correct. That was part of my reasoning. I was thinking aged fermented cheeses not fresh cheeses, which do have more lactose. Aged fermented cheese is what I was figuring they would have made, because of the lactose issues. These take several months to years to make. I was lumping in higher lactose things like milk, soft unripened cheeses and yogurts together as 'high lactose desperation foods' as arguably, all were likely consumed for the same reasons early on. I would guess the lower lactose fermented cheeses would have been favoured earlier though. Humans have a history of fermentation and the utility of aged cheese is kind of hard to beat as far as such things go regarding fat and calorie content and preservability.