The importance of orange cheddar

[pantryslut]

Among many other yummy things, we got a couple of apples in the box
yesterday. The cold weather has me thinking: apples and cheddar.

Red and yellow striped peel, white flesh...

...there is no way I can eat a white cheddar with this. It's just wrong.

And me with a block of delicious white cheddar (yes, I broke down) in my
fridge. It will have to go to something else, sorry.

Sigh. Aesthetics.

Comments

[genderfur.livejournal.com]

Mac and (white) cheese, with strips of roasted red pepper in?

[stopword.livejournal.com]

Total agreement. It's just not the same with white cheddar.

[pennski.livejournal.com]

What is white cheddar?

The Cheddar I'm familiar with comes in shades of yellow. Not that most of it comes from cheddar of course. Nor that I can eat it any more (sigh).

[genderfur.livejournal.com]

The Cheddar you're familiar with is dyed. It's not a modern abomination: it's a traditional abomination. (And there may even be a historical reason for it that I don't know.)

White cheddar has ...no dye.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

It's not an abomination at all, any more than adding turmeric for color in curries is an abomination. Or saffron to stew.

Or annato seed to cheese.

[genderfur.livejournal.com]

Well, turmeric and saffron both (theoretically) add flavor as well. Annato seed presumably adds flavor and texture?

But Cheddar is just orange. I really do wonder what the historical basis of the dye was. Perhaps just a way to distinguish it from the next county over's cheese? I'm very tempted to go on a research jag right now, but I really shouldn't....

[genderfur.livejournal.com]

Nope, annato is a coloring agent and Cheddar is a town. Okay, it didn't take much research. From Wikipedia:

Like many cheeses, the colour of Cheddar is often modified by the use of food colourings. In the United States, Annatto, extracted from the tropical achiote tree, is traditionally used to give Cheddar a deep orange colour. The origins of this practice have been long since forgotten, but the three leading theories appear to be:

=o= to allow the cheese to have a consistent colour from batch to batch
=o= to assist the purchaser in identifying the type of cheese when it is unlabelled
=o= to identify the cheese's region of origin.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Trust me, turmeric is there to add color, not flavor. Turmeric tastes nasty.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

In the US, cheddar cheese is often dyed with annatto, which makes it quite orange. Cheddar that isn't dyed like this is "white cheddar." This orange cheddar is what I grew up with, considering Wisconsin seems to be the center of this practice.

White cheddar isn't always white. Often it's some shade of pale straw yellow, probably similar to what you're familiar with. The white cheddar in my fridge, though, is pretty darn pale.

[n-elisbeth.livejournal.com]

I grew up with white cheddar which seems to be a very east coast/New York/Vermont thing so, back in the day when I could actually eat cheese, I always perfered a really sharp white cheddar.

[dangerpudding.livejournal.com]

ooh, now I'm craving apples and cheddar. Evil, I have neither in the house. I suspect I'll be making a grocery run soon.

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

I would be happy to relieve the strain on your aesthetic values by taking the white cheddar off your hands.

[billbrent.livejournal.com]

I would be happy to relieve the strain on your aesthetic values by taking the white cheddar off your hands.

ROFLMAOBOT! Me, too.

Now I suppose someone on this thread will trash Tillamook, but I like it. Here's a handy-dandy guide:

http://tillamookcheese.com/wheretobuy/

OK, I am off to have some orange Cheddar. For real.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I think I will relieve my aesthetic strain by eating the white cheddar with something else instead. Cold cuts and grapes and flatbread, maybe.