The history of Asiago cheese is lost in that of the populations of the Asiago Plateau, from which it draws its name.
Conventionally its origin is traced back around the year 1000, being very rare testimonies, coming from the Asian plateau, relative to the previous centuries.
In the plateau of the Seven Municipals, very fertile of good herbs, the sheep farm was the predominant activity.
Thanks to it a tasty cheese of sheep's milk was produced and wool was produced for the textile, first and then industrial activities of the valleys of the Alto Vicentino.
With the modernization of techniques, around 1500 cattle farms gradually began to replace sheep.
In this period, the dairy technique, which is still preserved in the high-planetary malages, was greatly refined and also moved to small and medium dairies, scattered in the production area.
The production of Asiago, prevalent in the mid-nineteenth century on the plateau of the same name, gradually extended to the pedemontana part, in the zones of the neighboring plains and in the nearby Trentino mills.
The main cause of this spread was the depopulation of the Seven Municipal Plateau, due to the use of the territory as a front line during the First World War.
At that time, only the Asiago d'allevo was produced, whose forms, fragrant depending on the processing and maturation, were cut only after months of ageing.
In the 1940s, however, the production began in the territory of Lusiana Conco of a Asiago cheese to a shorter ageing, called Asiago pressed, whose forms, just produced, are subjected to a pressing under manual or hydraulic presses.
It is a technological variant that was already adopted in the malages or alpine pastures, especially in the first period of livestock breeding.
This product "new" met the taste of the modern consumer, which favours sweet and soft flavors.
