Cheese is my favorite food, hands down. On the sweet/savory scale, I have always considered myself on the far end of the sweet spectrum...which makes me feel like a hypocrite when saying "cheese is my favorite food" but who cares...perhaps I am a hypocrite.
The evolution of cheese began around 5,000 years ago in both Central Asia and the Middle East. At some point, the people in these regions discovered they could preserve curdled milk by draining off the watery whey and salting the remaining curds. If you've ever tried them, you know that cheese curds are very squeaky when you chew them. The Egyptians discovered that the curds became more pliable and soft if the curdling took place when in contact with an animal stomach (yummy). The earliest good evidence of cheese making, a residue found in Egyptian pot, dates from 2300 BC (1).
(1): On Food and Cooking
