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Cheeses and Cheesemaking in Medieval Europe

with OSU professor, Leslie Lockett

Join OSU's Leslie Lockett to learn about cheese in medieval Europe. This blend of history, literature, and science promises to be as complex and flavorful as your favorite artisanal cheese!

How were cheesemaking, cheese consumption, and the cultural significance of cheese different in medieval Europe (ca. 500-1500 CE) than they are for us? In this lecture Leslie Lockett addresses this question from three angles, by discussing cheese itself, cheese as a symbol or concept, and replicative experiments in cheesemaking. In the first part of the talk, she analyzes written historical evidence concerning how cheeses were produced, eaten, and enjoyed in the era before artificial refrigeration and microscopes existed, and she shows that the cultural significance of cheese varied sharply among regions within medieval Europe. Next, she examines instances in which cheese serves as a potent symbol or explanatory concept: for example, the remarkable analogy that likens the development of the human fetus in the womb to the coagulation of milk into cheese curds. To conclude, she shares plans for the next phase of her research, in which the principles of experimental archaeology will inform the project of replicating medieval cheesemaking methods and materials as thoroughly as possible, potentially granting us a deeper understanding of medieval cheeses than written evidence alone will permit.

This lecture will tie in with a Special Collections exhibit on the subject at OSU's Thompson Library this Spring.

Leslie Lockett is a professor of English and the associate director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

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