How to Make Cheese Glue, c. 1300

manuscript illustration of customer at shop full of cheese wheels Tacuinum sanitatis, ÖNB Cod.Vindob.s.n.2644, f.30r (14th c.)

Take old cheese, and cut it into little pieces, then put them in water for two full days or more. Then grind them well on a marble stone. Then add to them almost as much good quicklime, and grind them well together, and it is the best glue; use it immediately while it is moist. This glue joins wood very well and when it is dry it is dissolved by neither fire nor water.

Secretum philosophorum

State-of-the-art adhesive technology circa 1300! Behold its excellence, its durability, its beguiling cheesy aroma.

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