Arrabidays|Days created with your favourite activities
Escape Directory|Guide to the best on Lisbon's south side
CheeseHistory
In the Roman era cheese really came into its own. Cheese making was done with skill and knowledge and reached a high standard. By this time the ripening process had been developed and it was known that various treatments and conditions under storage resulted in different flavours and characteristics.The larger Roman houses had a separate cheese kitchen, the caseale, and also special areas where cheese could be matured. In large towns home-made cheese could be taken to a special centre to be smoked. Cheese was served on the tables of the nobility and travelled to the far corners of the Roman Empire as a regular part of the rations of the legions. During the Middle Ages, monks became innovators and developers and it is to them we owe many of the classic varieties of cheese marketed today.
Most authorities consider that cheese was first made in the Middle East. The earliest type was a form of sour milk which came into being when it was discovered that domesticated animals could be milked. A legendary story has it that cheese was 'discovered' by an unknown Arab nomad. He is said to have filled a saddlebag with milk to sustain him on a journey across the desert by horse. After several hours riding he stopped to quench his thirst, only to find that the milk had separated into a pale watery liquid and solid white lumps. Because the saddlebag, which was made from the stomach of a young animal, contained a coagulating enzyme known as rennin, the milk had been effectively separated into curds and whey by the combination of the rennin, the hot sun and the galloping motions of the horse. The nomad, unconcerned with technical details, found the whey drinkable and the curds edible...
In 1830 Gaspar Henriques de Paiva came with his flock of sheep from the north of Portugal to farm in Azeitao.
It is believed that he so missed the flavors of his homeland, that he started to produce a little cheese using the same techniques as the famous cheese of the Serra da Estrela in the north of Portugal. The cheese maker later passed on his techniques to some of the villagers and from there followed successive generations of cheese making tradition resulting in the Queijo de Azeitao
The thistle cynara cardunculus was one of the most popular and most costly garden plants in Rome in the 2nd century. It was used as a potherb and as a salad plant. It has been grown over all the Mediterranean countries for many hundreds of years, but was introduced into England as late as 1658. It was being grown in America in the 18th century.
