Conference turris::cooks

>Side question:  Is the orange color in cheese just some kind of food coloring?
> or a side effect of the process?  I've never seen orange milk...

In ancient times, the colors of the cheese changed due to the differing diet
of the cattle at different times of year - and some cheddar cheese showed up
with a "yellowish" or "orangish" tone to it.  For some reason, it was decided 
that it was GOOD to have cheese that color...and..

actually, essence of carrot is normally the coloring agent.  It is used for
"traditonal" reasons - someone once added it to differentiate the cheddar 
cheese from the "western" cheeses like monterey jack, etc. visually, in order 
to keep us shoppers out here from making a mistake.  It then bacame a 
"traditional" additive to cheddar cheese in the USA.....in fact, I didn't 
KNOW cheddar cheese came in other colors until I moved to New England and 
discovered vermont cheddar cheese...what a heavenly discovery that was!  
I understand that various food colors may be added to cheeses in other parts 
of the world, but I'm not sure what is used....I would bet annetto(sp?) is 
often used (vegetable coloring agent often used to tint margarine "butter" 
yellow).

another piece of trivia from my reading....8^}

    to continue tangent on .3
    
    	My dad used to tell me that during the depression, butter
    (or oleo) was sold as white and a packet of yellow coloring
    was included so that you could knead or blend the yellow
    into the butter (or oleo) for the "normal" color of butter.

RE: .4

Oleomargerine in the U.S. was required to be distributed that way (with a
separate packet of yellow food color) because of the dairy lobbyists, who
feared the competition.  Without the yellow color, margerine was quite an
unappetizing whitish-gray color.  This helped butter sales.  Eventually,
public pressure forced the USDA to relent and allow the color to be mixed in
directly at the margerine factory--the public still bought oleo because of
the cheaper price, and they complained about having to mix the color in
at home.

--PSW

I had a roomie from Atlanta who once asked what us-all did to the cheeses up 
north to get them not to be orange.  My response was that we avoided the cows
that gave orange milk.  He was suitably embarrassed...

We swapped experiences on the subject.  He grew up thinking the orange was the
natural way, even the American cheese was orange down there.  I grew up with
the only orange cheeses being the ones you got from Hickory Farms or the
Wisconsin Cheeseman, thinking this was highly unnatural.  It proabably accounts
for my attitude towards them as being "inferior" even though I've never 
disliked any product from either place.

    I remember my Dad mixing the yellow coloring agent in with the oleo -
    and this was after WWII, well after the Depression. Later on while in
    Economics 101 the prof attributed this to the strong Dairy lobby.
    
    Interesting, just last night, my wife had mentioned how INexpensive
    butter has been recently. Now we eat margarine by choice and the forces
    of supply and demand keep prices down. Or, maybe it's just a simple
    reason like cows give more milk in the springtime.
    
    Anyway . . . Has anyone got a recipe that was called for in the base
    note? I'm not a big brocolli fan (If George Bush . . .) but I once had
    a delicious chedder soup in a small restaurant in Colorado Springs and
    was hooked forever. Please post one here; we can always pick out the
    brocolli.
    
    Thanks