SC - Re: cheese colouring

[Jenne Heise]

> 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, 

I have also heard this. Lady's Bedstraw does dye a reddish-gold.

Mrs. Grieve's _Modern Herbal_ (which is not period and not my favorite
source but it IS online) says of Ladies' Bedstraw:

"The plant has the property of curdling milk, hence another of its popular
names ' Cheese Rennet.' It was called ' Cheese Renning' in the sixteenth
century, and Gerard says (quoting from Matthiolus, a famous commentator of
Dioscorides), 'the people of Thuscane do use it to turne their milks and
the cheese, which they make of sheepes and goates milke, might be the
sweeter and more pleasant to taste. The people in Cheshire especially
about Nantwich, where the best cheese is made, do use it in their rennet,
esteeming greatly of that cheese above other made without it.' The rich
colour of this cheese was probably originally derived from this plant,
though it is now obtained from annatto. "


Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at tulgey.browser.net
disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.
   "My hands are small I know, but they're not yours, they are my own"