[it's OKAY to be SMART]

[聰明沒什麼不對]

After bread, cheese might represent mankind's oldest food produced by science, maybe even predating beer.

繼麵包之後，起司大概是人類利用科學所製作出來最古老的食物，甚至可能比啤酒還要早。

Problem is, there are so many different cheeses made in so many different ways that figuring out the science behind this ancient food is enough to turn your brain into a ooey gooey melty mess.

問題是，有這麼多種起司以及這麼多種不同的製作方法，要理解這古老食物背後的科學，足以把你的大腦變成一團混亂。

So today, I'm heading over to my favorite cheese shop in Austin to see if we can eat our way to some knowledge.

所以我今天要去我在美國德州奧斯丁最喜歡的起司店，看看能不能邊吃邊學點知識。

I'm here with Kara, our friendly neighborhood cheese expert to find out a little bit more about the science of cheese.

和我一起的這位是 Kara，住在附近的友善起司專家。她會和我們一起發現更多起司背後的科學原理。

Hey, how's it going?

嘿，你好嗎？

Feeling fantastic! How are you doing?

棒極了！你呢？

I'm so happy to Brie here.

我很高興能來 (brie 和 be 音近，意思為「乾酪」)。

So it seems like for as long as people have been drinking milk, they've been eating cheese.

人類開始吃起司的歷史，好像和喝牛奶差不多長。

So, where did the cheese start?

那麼起司究竟是從何而來的呢？

Documentation, kind of doesn't go as far back as cheese does.

歷史文件似乎沒有記載那麼久以前的事。

But the original recipe, as legend has it, was actually an accident, as so many great food discoveries tend to be, right?

不過根據傳說，原始的製作方法其實是一場意外，就像其他美妙的食物一樣，對吧？

A middle eastern goat herder who was traveling across this kind of dry arid desert tried to store his milk in the stomach sack, essentially of one of his animals that they had butchered, sort of like a canteen.

一個中東的牧羊人在橫跨乾燥沙漠的旅途中，將牛奶保存在動物的胃袋中；基本上就是用他們屠宰的某隻動物的胃來裝牛奶，概念有點像是水壺那樣。

Unfortunately, when he went to drink it later, it was solid.

不幸的是，當他之後想要喝的時候，牛奶已經凝固了。

I say unfortunately for him.

對他來說是個不幸。

For us, obviously it was very fortunate, 'cause that's how we kind of learned that milk can turn solid and start to discover how.

但是很顯然地對我們來說是則是非常幸運的，因為人們發現了牛奶會凝固後，便開始研究原因。

Yeah, I think that worked out pretty well for us.

對啊，我覺得這對我們來說是件好事。

Yeah, I'd say so, yeah.

是啊，我也覺得。

Is there something special about an animal stomach that turns milk into cheese?

讓牛奶變成起司的動物胃袋有什麼特別的嗎？

Rennet. Rennet is one of the four core ingredients in making cheese, and it really is what gives body to the milk.

凝乳酶。動物胃袋中的凝乳酶是製作起司的四個主要原料之一，它能讓牛奶凝固起來。

So it's the stomach lining that serves kind of as a, sort of akin to gelatin.

所以胃膜有點像是吉利丁那樣。

Let's say, I've got a glass of milk, and I want to turn it into cheese. What's the first step?

如果說我有一杯牛奶，而我想把它變成起司，我首先要做什麼？

So four ingredients are necessary in making any cheese.

製作任何起司都需要四個原料。

You've already got the first one if you've got your milk. You want to heat up the milk.

你那杯牛奶就是第一個，接著你要加熱它。

And then you add in cultures. And cultures are essentially where we're gonna start that lacto-fermentation process.

之後加入培養菌，接著牛奶就會開始發酵。

The same way that yeast drives that fermentation process of the bread base. Those cultures do the same for the milk.

就跟酵母使麵包麵糰發酵一樣，培養菌也會讓牛奶開始發酵。

And then you start to add in that rennet.

接著要加入凝乳酶。

And the rennet is what's gonna give you the solids versus liquids.

凝乳酶會幫你把固體和液體分開。

So it's gonna separate the curds from the whey.

它會將凝乳與乳清分開。

As soon as you have that texture, you're cutting the curds.

一旦牛奶開始漸漸結塊，你就要準備把凝乳切碎。

And that's the first big decision is: how big do you cut them?

而這是第一個轉捩點：你要切多大？

Because the more surface area on each curd, the more its gonna kind of wash out that whey.

一塊凝乳外圍的面積越大，就越容易將乳清沖掉。

So if you want a softer cheese, you're gonna cut the curds a bit larger.

如果你想要較軟的起司，就要切得大塊一點。

If you want to make something like a Parmesan Reggiano, something you're going to really age out, you want it to be dry, you're gonna go small.

如果你想要帕瑪森乳酪或是帕爾米賈諾、或是那種要熟成很久、變很乾的起司，就要切得很小。

And then you're gonna kind of, as soon as it's sturdy enough, season your cheese.

接著等到它變得夠扎實了，就要開始調味。

And that's the salt.

也就是加入鹽巴。

And those are really the four ingredients you need to make any cheese.

而這就是你製作起司所需要的四個材料。

Alright, so here we have our seven styles of cheese.

我們這裡有七種起司。

And this is just how we talk about cheese here, it's our vocabulary, so people kind of feel at ease with chatting cheese, right?

這就是我們討論起司的方式。我們用這些名詞，讓大家能自在地談論起司。

So we're gonna start fresh with fresh cheeses.

我們先從新鮮乳酪開始。

Color and rinds develop with age, so you just have a perfectly white cheese right here that's really just a beautiful example of a feta or a fresh cheese.

起司的顏色和外皮是會隨著時間成熟的，像手邊這塊完美的白起司，就是羊乳酪或新鮮乳酪的極佳範例。

Alright, so down here we have kind of this middle grouping of cheeses.

好的，接下來是接近中間的起司。

We have semi-soft cheeses, those are the ones that are really going to bend before they break.

這種半軟起司在碎裂之前會很有彈性。

Lower melting points, so these are your grilled cheese cheeses.

有比較低的熔點，所以很適合拿來做烤起司。

Firm cheeses, those are gonna definitely break, not bend, but they might still have a nice, kind of, melt-in-your-mouth quality here.

結實的起司很容易碎裂，沒什麼彈性，但是也還是會有入口即化的質地。

So these are gonna include a lot of the cheddars out there, a lot of the, kind of, gruyères, swiss cheeses, things like that.

這包含了很多種切達起司，格魯耶爾乾酪、蜂窩乾酪等等。

And then we have our hard cheeses, often considered recipe cheeses or grating cheeses.

接著是硬起司，最常用來入菜或磨成起司粉。

If you ask me, all cheese is grate. Cheesy jokes.

如果你問我的話，我覺得所有的起司都很棒 (grate 和 great 同音，意思是「磨碎」) 。氣死人的起司冷笑話。

But then once you've got your cheese, and you're setting it to age, there are certain molds and bacterias in any environment.

製作好起司後就要準備去熟成了，而每個環境中有都有特定的黴菌或細菌。

There are millions and trillions around us right now, right?

像現在就有好幾十億個細菌在我們身邊，對吧？

That are gonna to affect this very porous surface that is cheese.

他們造就了起司坑坑巴巴的表面。

These are the cheeses that really use molds and bacteria in the make process itself.

這些起司在製造過程中都有使用黴菌或細菌。

So starting towards the younger end of things we have these bloomy rinded cheeses.

從比較年輕的起司開始，這些表皮都粉粉的。

What's happening here is there is this one strain of mold called penicillium candidum.

這裡用的是一種青黴菌。

And the cheesemaker is either mixing it in with a milk or actually spraying the exterior of the formed cheese with this mold.

起司製造者不是將這種黴菌混進牛奶裡，就是直接把它灑在起司表面上。

So next here we'll go over to these washed rinds.

接下來看這些洗皮起司。

Now this is where you're using bacteria instead of mold.

這些用的則是細菌，而不是黴菌。

The Trappist monks were kind of the first people making washed rind cheeses.

特拉斯比會的教士應該是第一批做出洗皮起司的人。

During Lent when they were abstaining from eating meat, they would take their beers and use them to wash their cheeses.

在大齋期他們是不能吃肉的，於是他們會拿啤酒來清洗乳酪。

Bacteria that lived in the beer itself called brevibacterium linens gives you a very very meaty sort of flavor.

啤酒中的亞麻短桿菌有非常像肉的味道。

So this one's really soft.

這塊起司非常軟。

Mhm, it's, definitely smell this one. So this is where you're gonna get those funky flavors there. Funky aromas.

嗯哼，然後絕對要聞聞看這個，這些起司有奇怪的風味。有種奇妙的香氣。

I can smell the beer in this. It's like... - Totally.

我聞得出啤酒的味道，有點像 ... －完全沒錯。

The environment in which you're aging has a huge deal to do with what the cheese is gonna end up tasting like and feeling like.

熟成的環境對起司的味道和質地有非常大的影響。

You can make Roquefort cheese in the caves of France, and then if you try to make the same recipe with your sheep's milk over in California, it's gonna be wildly different, because you just don't have the same aging environment.

你可以在法國的洞穴中做出法國藍莓乳酪，而如果你想用同樣的方法用羊奶在加州製造起司，結果將會大不相同，這就是因為熟成的環境不一樣所致。

There aren't the same native, sort of, molds and bacteria.

當地的黴菌和細菌的種類並不相同。

So that's what we see in blue cheese. Is it a fungus that's in there?

這就是我們能在藍紋起司裡看到的狀況。這裡面是菌類嗎？

It's a mold. It's a penicillium.

這是黴菌，是青黴菌。

This type of penicillium needs oxygen in order to bloom into blue.

這種青黴菌需要接觸到氧氣才會變成藍色。

So what they're doing is creating these passageways. These lines you see here are where they needled the cheese and you can see these little dots on top, too.

所以他們會製造出這些通道。你看到的這些線條是他們刺穿起司的地方，而且也可以看到上面這些小斑點。

And you can see that they actually poked holes in the cheese during the aging process.

看得出它們在熟成的過程中在起司上扎出小洞。

You should sell this as a perfume. Just like a little bit under......

你應該把這些當香水來賣，就在這裡噴一點 ...

Just a little eau de blue cheese. - This smells so good.

一點藍紋起司香水。－好好聞。

So there you have it, an 8,000 year old food, our first biotechnology, nature's most delicious accident.

就是這樣，8000 歲的食物、人類的第一個生物技術、大自然最美味的意外。

It's half science, half art, half microbial magic. But cheese is all delicious.

起司是由一半科學、一半藝術、一半微生物魔術所造就的。不管什麼起司都很美味。

You have the best job ever.

你有著世上最棒的工作。

It's a pretty good job. I'm not gonna lie.

這是個很棒的工作，我不騙你。

Cheesemonger, fun word, fun job.

乾酪商，有趣的詞，有趣的工作。

Stay curious.

保持好奇心！

[Special thanks to Antonelli's cheese shop. Austin, TX.]

[特別感謝在德州奧斯汀的 Antonelli 起司鋪。]