Curds of the pharaoh as cheese is found in 3,000-year-old tomb

THE world’s oldest cheese may have been found in the tomb of an ancient Egyptian mayor, but – frustratingly for turophiles – the taste of the bacterialaced sample remains a mystery.

The discovery came after researchers tested the whitish contents of the jar found in the tomb of Ptahmes, a mayor of 13th century BC Memphis, an important city in southern Egypt.

“This is the oldest solid cheese ever found,” Enrico Greco, of the University of Catania who co-authored the report, told The Daily Telegraph.

Remains of cheese-like products older than the jar’s contents had previously been discovered in Poland, China, and Egypt, but the researchers said they were the products of natural fermentation so were more like yogurt than cheese. Mr Greco said older samples discovered elsewhere were “more attributable to natural fermented milk like yogurt or kefir. In our case we didn’t find any biomolecular traces of proteins resulting from natural fermentation of milk”. The jar had been covered in a canvas to preserve the cheese. The scientists investigated its contents using liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. Their tests showed the cheese had been made from a mixture of cow and sheep, or goat, milk. They also revealed that the sample was laced with Brucella melitensis, a bacteria that can be deadly to humans. But the cheese’s taste is a mystery.

“We do not have much information on what the taste could be, we know it was made mostly from sheep’s and goat’s milk,” Mr Greco said. “But for me it’s really hard to imagine a specific flavour. I’m Italian, I know how much they can change in flavour and appearance even with very few differences in ingredients and process. It is these small variations in the regional processes that have allowed the development of so many varieties.”

The research was published in the journal Analytical Chemistry.