SC - Re: cheese colouring

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

hey all from ANne-Marie

on the color of cheese

adimantius sez:
>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.

I can say from experience that a cow (or goat or sheep) that eats a lot of
fresh green spring grass will have yellow(er) cream than a cow that is on
winter feed. Since our modern cow dairies are almost exclusively on "winter
feed" like condiitions (ie dry hay, grain, etc), they add coloring to
cheese and butter to make it yellow.

I've seen yellow cheese without dye, but I've never seen ORANGE cheese
without annatto or some other coloring agent.

hope this helps!

- --AM, your friendly neighborhood Dairy Achievement Princess (1982) :)