Cheese in Middle Earth

[The Elf Imperishable]

Yes, this is an actual topic. Food is a critical part in any world, and something as useful as cheese merits discussion. Which peoples of Middle Earth can we assume could've had the bright idea to eat moldy, infested with organisms, dried dairy-based products? What animals are there in middle-earth besides cows that could produce the milk that would make a cheese? Is it plausible for goblins and orcs to make/eat cheese?

[Boromir88]

I'll have to do some digging on some of the other races. But for sure we know that hobbits had cheese. Bilbo has it in An Unexpected Party. I think it would be safe to assume dwarves as well, since Bofur was the one who asked for it:

"And raspberry jam and apple-tart" said Bifur
"And mince-pies and cheese," said Bofur
"And pork-pie and salad." said Bombur

The Hobbit, An Unexpected Party

[Lirimaer]

Any culture that farms cattle or sheep produces dairy products, which in a pre-industrial society wouldn't be viewed as 'mouldy' until it was inedible and they wouldn't have the technology to know it was 'infested with organisms'. If you didn't produce such things yourself, you could always trade for them, or rob them, so I imagine it's perfectly feasible that most human-like creatures in Middle-earth would have some sort of cheese - including orcs, whose diet, I imagine, has given them a cast-iron constitution.

[Thalionwen Hunigfolm]

Yeah cheese is just a fermentation process and fermentation is one of the oldest food production/preservation methods, so I'd assume there were Middle Earth equivalents of cheese, yogurt, kefir, etc

But where do we stand on *ice cream*??? :smiley8:

[Eldy Dunami]

There is indisputably cheese in Rivendell:

Oh, what are you doing,
And where are you going?
Your ponies need shoeing,
The river is flowing!
Oh, tra-la-la-lally
Here down in the valley, ha! ha!

:smiley8:

(And yeah I guess they probably had the option of eating cheese if so inclined.)

[KingODuckingham]

I did a little bit of digging, and found the following references in roughly chronological order:

1) Tom Bombadil and Goldberry serve the hobbits cheese (and other foods) at their house in the Old Forest

2) Barliman Butterbur has cheese on the menu at the Prancing Pony in Bree.

3) Faramir serves Frodo and Sam a meal that has red cheese in Ithilien.

4) Beregond serves Pippin a meal in Gondor that includes cheese, although Pippin notices that all the 'kine' are gone from the Pelennor.

[geordie]

also, Pippin had for breakfast a small loaf and an 'inadequate' pat of butter, beside a glass of 'thin milk'.
I guess they must have driven some cattle or goats inside the City, to provide them though a siege?

[Boromir88]

KingODuckingham
4) Beregond serves Pippin a meal in Gondor that includes cheese, although Pippin notices that all the 'kine' are gone from the Pelennor.

The Steward, Vorondil, hunted the kine of Araw in Rhun, which if I recall correctly ended up being the horn of Gondor passed down from Vorondil to Boromir.

'Verily,' said Denethor. 'And in my turn I bore it, and so did each eldest son of our house, far back into the vanished years before the failing of the kings, since Vorondil father of Mardil hunted the wild kine of Araw, in the far fields of Rhun.' Lord of the Rings: Minas Tirith

1. See page 755. The wild white kine that were still to be found near the Sea of Rhun were said in legend to be descended from the Kine of Araw, the huntsman of the Valar, who alone came often to Middle-earth in the Elder Days. Orome is the high-elven form of his name. Footnote in Appendix A: The Southern Line Heirs of Anarion

So cattle seemed to heavily populate in Rhun (which could also suggest Sauron's armies having cheese/dairy). It's speculated that the beasts that drove Grond were the Kine of Araw, but I don't think there's been anything to tie those together. I'm only aware of the brief instance in Siege of Gondor which of Grond says "great beasts drew it."

[Amhran]

A line from Tom Bombadil's tale of the history of Middle Earth in the chapter "In the House of Tom Bombadil" mentions sheep - "Sheep walked for a while biting the grass, but soon the hills were empty again." Beorn also has sheep in The Hobbit. Sheep's milk makes quite good cheese (Manchego being a delicious example). So there's that.

From the books it honestly sounds like they have all the same farm animals we do, and therefore probably did the same things with them. Cheese is quite ancient - and fairly widespread - as a food source so it's not that surprising that it should appear along with other cured animal products (Farmer Maggot serves "a mighty dish of mushrooms and bacon").

[MistressofJesters]

A line from Tom Bombadil's tale of the history of Middle Earth in the chapter "In the House of Tom Bombadil" mentions sheep - "Sheep walked for a while biting the grass, but soon the hills were empty again." Beorn also has sheep in The Hobbit. Sheep's milk makes quite good cheese (Manchego being a delicious example). So there's that.

From the books it honestly sounds like they have all the same farm animals we do, and therefore probably did the same things with them. Cheese is quite ancient - and fairly widespread - as a food source so it's not that surprising that it should appear along with other cured animal products (Farmer Maggot serves "a mighty dish of mushrooms and bacon").

I recently read Sigrud Undset's The Master of Hestviken, which takes place in medieval Norway, and there was SO MUCH cheesemaking. My mind immediately went there as soon as I saw this thread topic. Cheese is a great food because it keeps well, and when your dairy animals dry up in winter/are pregnant...it's good to have something preserved on hand!