If you’ve ever wondered what Tudor England had to say about cheese — and let’s be honest, who hasn’t — you’re in for a delightful dairy surprise. An English manuscript from the 1500s has now been digitized and can be viewed online, offering up a smorgasbord of curdled curiosities, health advice, and surprisingly detailed cheese-making notes. But this isn’t just a cookbook — it’s a slice of history with peculiar prescriptions and even weirder warnings. So grab a drink and prepare to nibble your way through the centuries, because this article is about to unpack the grated tale behind the oldest known English book on cheese.
A Rare Historical Find
This cheesy treasure didn’t just turn up in someone’s pantry. The manuscript — officially titled A pamflyt Compiled of Cheese, Contayninge the Differences, Nature, Qualities, and Goodness, of the Same (yes, really) — was penned in the late 1580s. While the author remains unknown, the names and notes inside the book suggest to experts that it probably belonged to a powerful Tudor family, as the mentioned names are connected to the royal court.
The University of Leeds acquired the manuscript at an auction in 2023, where it is now part of the university’s Cultural Collections. The honor of decoding its dairy delights went to Ruth Bramley, who lovingly translated the text and helped bring it to the public through the digitization project. Another colleague, Tamsin Bacchus, noted how the author made a point to check with local farmers when scholars disagreed, indicating a trust in real-world knowledge. Interestingly, few written records remain from the Tudor era that describe how cheese was made or used, even though it was part of their diet. A leading expert, food historian Peter Brears, had this to say about the book:
“I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s probably the first comprehensive academic study of a single foodstuff to be written in the English language.”
—Peter Brears, The Greek Reporter
History Is Sharp
This isn’t your average block of cheddar — this manuscript is packed with gouda gossip, medical musings, and some whey-out-there health tips. In Tudor England, food wasn’t just fuel — it was considered frontline medicine. Even commoners were well-versed in the belief that what you ate could cure what ailed you, and cheese, in particular, was seen as both culprit and cure, depending on your constitution.
One surprisingly modern-sounding section recommends eating cheese based on your body type — a form of proto-lactose-intolerance awareness centuries before oat milk lattes were a thing. Another suggests ending your meal with a bit of cheese to help digestion, so the Tudors were serving up charcuterie wisdom long before it became Instagrammable. But things get stranger from there: dog’s milk is accused of triggering early childbirth, and apparently, in far-off lands, cheese could be churned from camel, donkey, or even horse milk (Neigh, thank you, though).
And if you thought the dairy drama ended there, think again. The manuscript stirs up theological cheese debates — can it be consumed on fasting days? One workaround suggested by the author is swapping animal rennet (enzymes from the contents of an animal’s stomach) for fish guts. The final pages even recount a tale from an ancient physician named Galen, who allegedly treated aching joints by rubbing them with spoiled cheese and bacon fat. Experts believe Tudor readers likely found it just as bizarre as we do — proof that history’s relationship with food has always been equal parts curiosity and comedy.
Whether you’re a curd nerd, a history buff, or just here for the bizarre medical advice, this cheesy manuscript has truly aged to perfection. You can read the whole thing online by clicking here. It’s a reminder that even in Tudor times, people were grappling with digestion, dietary debates, and dairy drama. And honestly? That’s nacho average historical find.
Check out Bram Stoker’s recently re-discovered story in my article: Gothic Gold: Stoker’s Lost Story Found After 130 Years.
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