SC - Re: cheese colouring

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Christina van Tets wrote:
 
After Stefan wrote (I think!) 
> >It may also be that we have been so conditioned by seeing brightly
> >colored foods, due to the use of artifical colors, that we consider
> >the more pastel shades not to be useful, whereas the medieval diner
> >may have been quite happy with them.
> 
> It may also be that we assume that people in days gone by had colourless
> surroundings because _we_ see their statues, etc as they are now, without
> the polychrome decoration, and their mosaics all pale and faded.  It's quite
> startling to see a statue or mosaic that hasn't had this happen, for one
> reason or another, and to realise just how gaudy some of these things
> actually were.  I can imagine very easily that this kind of aesthetic could
> be transferred to food presentation.  Perhaps we need to go back to
> paintings of food to answer this question.

Of course this idea can be taken too far, too, as with the commonly-held
SCAdian belief that "There-is-no-such-color-as-pink-in-period, only
faded red!" I'm half-horrified at the prospect of, say, a Phydias
Poseidon in bright red lipstick, but what the hey...

FWIW, I'm aware of various herbs added to cheeses, probably initially as
herbal curdling agents, which may have continued to be used for flavor
and/or color, even when calf rennet and such became a more common denaturizer.

Among other cases of artificial colorings added to cheeses, I'm aware of
Gervase Markham recommending a rather peculiar process for turning the
marrowgut and wealcrud of a calf into rennet, which involves both egg
yolks and saffron (plus rosewater and various other things). This might
contribute to a yellower color of the finished cheese, too, although I
suspect the saffron and rosewater are there as much to mask any musty
flavors accruing in the various soaking processes used to make this
rennet, as for coloring.

But, ultimately, a lot of early "yellow" cheeses, including Cheddar,
apparently, relied simply on a high butterfat content and trace pigments
from whatever the dairy cow ate for their color. This is also true of Parmagianno.
  
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com