The World’s Oldest Cheese Was Just Discovered in Egypt, and People Actually Want To Eat It
Cheese enthusiasts take their hobby pretty seriously. That’s why when the world’s oldest cheese was found in an Egyptian tomb this week, people started proclaiming en masse that they wanted to try it, which of course led experts to come out and advise something you would never think necessary: don’t.
Researchers are warning that the 3,200-year-old cheese could be poisonous. Made either of cow or goat milk, the cheese may contain a fatal infectious disease called brucellosis. According to the CDC, it’s an infection spread by eating unpasteurized or raw dairy products and infected animals.
The cheese was discovered in the tomb of Ptahmes, who was the mayor of Memphis, Egypt, during the 13th-century BC. And before your FOMO gets too bad, it might make you feel better to know that this cheese probably won’t taste anything like modern cheese. Enrico Greco, the research lead from Italy’s University of Catania, told ABC, “I’m Italian. I love cheese and I know how much they can change in flavor and appearance even with very few differences in ingredients and process.”
Disregarding the experts’ warnings, cheese lovers still took to Twitter to express their desires to try the potentially fatal cheese anyway. Some couldn’t seem to care less about eating the diseased cheese while others are curious about pairing it with the red liquid found in the nearby sarcophagus.
Let us eat the disease cheese https://t.co/4q7mmFEqzj
— Eliza Berlage (@verbaliza) August 17, 2018
Don’t care. Still eating it. https://t.co/XOs2sEPBjk
— Jake Vig (@Jake_Vig) August 17, 2018
LET US PAIR IT WITH A GLASS OF SARCOPHAGUS RED AND FEEL WHAT IT IS TO TRULY LIVE FOR ONCE YOU COWARDS https://t.co/w10rECTP5d
— Johnny Chiodini (@johnneh) August 17, 2018
dip it in the fucking sarcophagus juice https://t.co/wFmQrnTaXs
— Emily Hughes 🦔 (@emilyhughes) August 17, 2018
H/T: Insider