SC - Re: cheese colouring

[Christina van Tets]

Hello the List!

Stefan asked:
>
>I think most of our yellow cheeses are artifically colored or at least
>intentionally colored. Anyone out there who has actually made cheese
>have any comments? So I would wonder if the period cook would have
>had multi-colored cheese available unless he intentionally colored
>it. And I would imagine if that were the case, it would have been
>explicitly mentioned since it would be out of the norm. The recipe
>is pretty explicit on coloring the noodles in two colors, for instance.
>

I think this may depend on where you or your persona come from.

TOTALLY UNSUBSTANTIATED HEARSAY (warning for those of you who will curl up 
and moan in agony if they read stuff like this without academic support...): 
  I have read that Celts, among others, used Lady's Bedstraw to curdle their 
milk for cheese, as it not only curdled it, but coloured it a reddish-gold, 
and that this is where Red Leicester cheese comes from.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:  I came across an OOP reference (OK, it was Little 
House on the Prairie, but you can duplicate some of those recipes really 
easily) to using grated carrots to colour milk prior to curdling.  For my 
most recent attempt I tried this in warm milk, while I was letting the 
starter grow a bit in it.  This worked beautifully.  I used about 1/2 cup 
grated carrot for about 4 litres of milk, and got a lovely creamy colour for 
the soft cheese, which turned to a really good pale to mid yellow when the 
cheese developed a rind.  Unfortunately, I can't say what it looked like in 
old age because my lord husband got to it before it matured properly.

>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.

Cairistiona
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