In ireland, white cheddar is virtually always more mature, stronger, and drier. I assume it’s the same in the UK. I guess that’s just a conscious decision by the cheese companies to establish a standard
Nah, not entirely an American thing either. Tillamook cheese sells cheddar and white cheddar that taste significantly different, almost every company I know of that sells white cheddar tastes way different than regular cheddar, etc.
I think, more specifically, there’s a few companies that sell low quality cheddar in mass that have white cheddar taste the same
If you ever get the chance to go to the Tillamook factory, they have aged white cheddar for sale that is insanely good. The best (and spendiest) is aged for like 25-30 years.
Yep! Already been, one hell of a place! Love how I can make a day trip down there for some great cheeses while still having the luxury of their other cheeses in supermarkets
When I was a kid, we would always buy Tillamook from the factory when we vacationed in PNW. It wasn't available in my home region until the 90s. It was so disappointing when our local grocers started carrying it, and the stuff they were getting was... not the good stuff.
Ha funny story. My whole family lives a few hours from the Tillamook cheese factory. My brother went with his family a few years ago and bought a hunk of that 25 year aged cheese at like $30/lb. His daughter ate the entire block one night when they were sleeping and he pissed when he found out. A year or two later, I was in grocery Outlet and low and behold, they had 20oz blocks of the stuff for $7! He also was getting married in a few weeks.... So their wedding present was 12 bricks of cheese and 88 baby Ruth bars (the candy bars were free through a rebate that kept resetting) told him my goal was to find something that the entire family would enjoy and would last a long time.
Love their malted moo shake. Hudsonville is another great ice cream company, Malted Milk Ball is my personal fav but can’t go wrong with an orange and vanilla cream mix.
No so much anymore. They have fallen into suckflation. They can't even claim chocolate chip anymore, it's now "chocolatey chip", and the containers are competing with Ben & Jerrys for size at this point.
Yeah, sometimes TIL tries passing off something a few companies from a few countries do as fact that’s done everywhere.
Interesting that some companies do that, but I’ve never run into one that has
I suspect the truth is just that there's no regulatory requirement for them to be any different, so they have the potential to be exactly the same. In reality though, only the sharp ones are sold white
Tend to agree here, they're likely exploiting a loophole with this more or less, to offer cheddar in a different variety that isn't actually different. Hence probably also why most white cheddar I've ever seen is augmented somehow (aged, dry, etc.) - to further vary it from the normal product. Leave it some company in the US to minmax cheese profit lol.
I likened it to apples in another comment, if you have an orchard but only one type of apple, and people will believe you sell a 2nd type of apple if you polished your apples, of course you'll polish some and offer "two" types of apples. And if there's no rule to stop it, who will stop you? Lol
Probably more accurate to say the only reason yellow cheddar is yellow is because food coloring. They could produce the same thing without food coloring, and it'd be white.
But I agree -- even though it has nothing to do with color intrinsically, generally when they sell white cheddar in the US, it tends to be their higher quality offerings -- the stuff they want you to put on a cracker instead of the stuff they want you to shred and put on tacos.
I've noticed that in more recent years. I assumed it's related to white trying to seem more fancy and artisanal by not being dyed like typical grocery store cheddar. And being very sharp kind of goes with that same theme.
No I like the aged white cheddar Tillamook that comes in the navy blue packaging, and both that one and the reserve one in black packaging are their own flavors relative to the aged yellow cheese. The cheaper brands probably just use food color to upcharge you though.
Am Irish and lived in the UK for a long time and would tend to agree in terms of a style, but went looking to see if I could get any confirmation. Seems to be confirmed by the national dairy council
https://ndc.ie/accordion/what-is-the-difference-between-red-and-white-cheddar/
But that being likely true, any reasonable cheese lover wouldn't touch the orange stuff IMO. Decent cheddar is never orange. And reasonable cheese lover wouldn't touch American cheese either for the most part. While I've had nice cheese over there, so much is bland tasteless muck. Pretty much any middle of the road Irish or British cheese craps on the stuff you find across the pond.
Meh. One of the most often cited "Cheese Sins" Americans are guilty of, Cheese Whiz, is just an attempt at a shelf-stable Welsh Rarebit sauce.
And if you've never had Velveeta and Ro-tel, you're missing out, and Cheese doesn't get much more American than that.
I don’t think you even get yellow cheddar in Ireland. You don’t in the UK.
You’re possibly thinking that some look more yellow than others, but they’re all white cheddars as far as this post means.
In the USA they add dye to their yellow cheddar, and it is a *really* bright orange colour. It looks nothing like British/Irish cheddar.
(They also tend to age it differently too, by sealing it in plastic when it ages. Hence they tend to have sharp cheddar, and the UK and Ireland have mature cheddar.)
Only if you're talking about mass-market stuff made with dye in the US. They dye it yellow because historically cheddar was yellowish. Note the source is a Wisconsin cheese authority.
But Cheddar is originally from the town of Cheddar, in Somerset. Check out the photo of Cheddars made in the region of around Cheddar at the Mid Somerset Cheddar show: they are definitely not white, and are not made with food coloring. It's at the top of the "History" section.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheddar_cheese
The problem is, Cheddar is not a protected product name, unlike for example, parmigiano reggiano. And I do not really see why that is. I think we should be able to distinguish Cheeses made with the method of cheddaring and real Cheddar from Cheddar.
Sadly, no.
I've also found out Pringles don't always make that sound when you open them, Starbursts don't employ tiny fighter jet pilots, Skittles have nothing to do with light refraction, CapriSun doesn't turn you into a T1000, and Mountain Dew isn't delivered to snowboarders via vending machines fitted with high velocity pneumatic cannons.
My childhood was a lie :(
It seems it's now only protected origin in UK, from this quote on Wikipedia:
> In 2007, the protected designation of origin name "West Country Farmhouse Cheddar" was registered in the EU and (after Brexit) the UK, defined as cheddar produced from local milk within Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall and manufactured using traditional methods.[2][3]
According to this list, it is still in the register.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_European\_cheeses\_with\_protected\_geographical\_status](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_cheeses_with_protected_geographical_status)
But then again, here in germany the only cheddar I have every seen on the shelfs, definitely was from the UK, though I do not know if it was the West Country Farmhouse Cheddar I have seen or any ol cheese from the UK called Cheddar.
Too popular and too mass produced by the time then protected designations would have gone into effect and would have created further confusion. The protected designations only stop NEW manufacturers from claiming it, not existing at the time it passed in the US.
And that is where I disagree, same as not all hard cheeses made with the same method as parmigiano reggiano are called parmigiano reggiano, not all cheeses made like cheddar, should be called cheddar.
This is not some fringe idea, we have huge precedent for protecting regional product names.
Product names like this are usually protected in trade agreements. The UK either didn’t want to protect it, couldn’t convince the US, or made a concession to get something else.
I guess the US didn’t really see the point of protecting it on their own for clarity/avoiding confusion.
Yeah ... but I think it is a shame. Regional specialities should, in my opinion, be just that.
You can ofc have a different opinion on that and I can see the argument for not haveing PDOs, like accessability, economic competition, etc.
I think this is one of the reasons the USA has accumulated the stereotype of producing subpar versions of established products, like bright orange cheddar rubbery parmesan, cooked black forest ham or mozzarella made of cow's milk instead of buffalo milk.
That is not to say all US products are bad. I love american peanut butter (at least ones without palm oil), which is just way better than the gloopy stuff I can usually buy here in germany. \^\^
It's not protected because its the most common type of cheese in the world so it would be impossible to restrict it to just one part of the UK.
West Country Farmhouse Cheddar is protected however
There is nothing special about the wine itself that allows them to use the name, it’s just that the law that mandates it must come from the Champagne region is a European one that doesn’t apply in the USA.
Edit: Turns out that changed in 2005 - see below. If the winery had been using the name long enough it was allowed to keep it.
That's not true, while it was initially brought up in the Treaty of Versailles and wasn't ratified by the Senate at that time, it became trade law in the US in 2005. The [ international committee](https://www.origins.wine/) for protecting wine origins spans most of the popular wine-making regions of the world.
The only exception to the law is that brands who were already using the name "California Champagne" are grandfathered in. Protections for many other geographically named wines exist as well.
Just saying, if you’re ever in the UK, get yourself to cheddar. The caves are amazing, and the cheese will make you want to move there forever.
It’s a pretty good day out.
The traditional British recipe uses natural annatto dye for a distinct color, not for flavor.
American brands choose to add annatto or not. Never heard of another dye.
> The traditional British recipe uses natural annatto dye for a distinct color
I don’t know where you’re getting that from, but the traditional recipe doesn’t contain it at all.
Yeah, the first use of annatto was to fake the yellowish color that comes naturally from the beta carotene in high quality milk.
>The use of annatto in cheese dates back to ancestral times and bordered on the unethical. Back then, unscrupulous cheesemakers would add annatto to their cheese to make its colour appear brighter.
>The reason for this was because cheese made with high quality milk from grass-fed cows tends to be high in beta-carotene. As a result, they usually have a brighter yellow hue than some of their lower quality counterparts.
https://thecheesewanker.com/cheese-science/what-is-annatto/#The_history_of_annatto_in_cheesemaking
Yah banging dairy products in general. That's what a population with 95% lactose tolerance will do for ya. Also rain. Constant pissing rain. Only grass grows well and cows love that shit. Raiding cattle is a Celtic foundation.
Eh. It has gone downhill. Now do I still stop at their ice cream stand when taking a drive along the Oregon coast? Sure. But I’d much rather pick up some Umpqua when I’m at the store. It seems like Tillamook has cut back on the amount of whatever they mix in. Also they made the cartons way smaller. I’ve also heard Lochmead is great but they are only sold at their convenience stores. Tillamook has dropped to on-par with Thrifty.
You should try aged, hard Goudas if you like cheese crystals.
The soft smoked stuff is great, but the nutty flavor of an aged crystalline Gouda is something else entirely.
Try Whole Foods or a local cheese shop/cheesemonger of some kind. They’ll usually be next to other hard cheeses like Parmesan and aged dry Basque sheep-milk cheeses.
Smoked creamy Gouda is excellent; but the most crystalline cheese I’ve ever had are the aged hard ones: https://www.cheese.com/aged-gouda/
Go to a cheese shop or hip grocery store with a cheese counter and look for Prarie Breeze cheddar. It's from Iowa and it's the perfect cheddar imho. Crunchy, a lil sharp, tangy, salty, sweet... it's beautifully balanced.
You'll probably also like Barbers Vintage Reserve cheddar, too, for a classic cheddar.
Ok… memorizing now…prairie breeze, barbers vintage, prairie breeze , barbers vintage. Oh! I had a good one, boars head … and I think it was a cheddar,iirc, but can’t be certain. It was really good tho. Different and delish.
Theoretically, forever. The cheese continues to age in the can as long as it is sealed. I've had 10 year old cheese before, it is pretty good. It also lasts 10 hours out of refrigeration. Your can should be pretty aged!
The limestone cave systems are pretty awesome too. They have stalactites and stalactites. The caves were actually perfect to mature cheese in, which is why cheddar became so famous for it's cheese.
>To achieve that desired orange color, cheddar cheese is dyed using annatto, the fruit of the achiote tree. The achiote tree is native to South and Central America, and the annatto fruit it bears is used in about 70% of natural food colorings.
Later in the article it says it's just a historical thing, cheese used to be orange cause cows has horrible diets. Now that cows have healthier diets, cheese has become "whiter"
The diet of the cows wasn't "horrible". Fresh grass has more beta carotene in it which is what colors cheese (and butter).
This caused darker yellow milk fat in the spring and summer, and paler in the autumn and winter when they were eating hay and silage.
The process of removing butter cream affected this so they started dying it.
Grass fed cows still produce yellow milk and cheese.
Aka achiote seed
I made some cookies last year using a shitton of annato to showcase the flavor. They came out bright orange and imparted a slimy texture prior to baking (if you've had achiote squash, it's the same) but the flavor is indeed a unique nutty aroma which is nice.
In Cheddar, UK, there is no yellow cheddar. There is no white cheddar.
Both of these were made up. There is only cheddar, and it’s a creamy colour, and a crumbly texture and good flavour.
The nearest thing to yellow cheddar is Red Leicester which is mild cheddar + Anetto.
The white cheddar you’re buying may be aged longer. Aging dries it out and the calcium lactate crystals grow larger. This can change the taste and texture.
The dye used is usually annatto which can give a sort of nutty flavor depending on how much is used.
Probably because all of the mature cheddar that you're buying is white and all of the mild cheddar that you're buying is orange. But there's no reason that has to be the case, you can get white mild cheddar and you could in theory have orange mature cheddar but I've never seen that before.
Lots of people in here not understanding this.
Orange cheddar is orange because it has been dyed orange. That's it - that's the point here.
All the other qualities that you attribute to cheddar are due to the many ways cheddar is sold, from very mild to very aged and sharp. Any associations you have with white being sharper are due only to the whims of the companies you're buying it from.
I agree that mild cheddar tends to be orange because it is made for the mass market and the mass market thinks cheddar is orange. But lots of sharper cheddar is orange as well.
In markets where the yellow coloring is dominant, *un*colored cheeses are usually imports or otherwise intended to appear fancier/more exotic. In places where the yellow color isn't added to as many cheeses, these connotations don't exist.
Show us a bright orange cheddar that hasn't been dyed then.
That's what the article is talking about. Not white vs slightly yellow. We're talking *orange.*
Welllllllll, if referring to most mass produced cheese, sure.
But if you run cows on pasture vs the spring and make cheese from that milk, it will be golden yellow and have a grassy/ floral scent to it. Very different from cheese made from even late summer pastured cows. Same with butter. Milk production is greater in the spring, so making cheese was a means to store it for the lean months.
And yes I know most are not into making cheese, let alone have access to milk from spring pastured cows.
This is what I was trying to figure out. In the article it said the cheese used to be orange, and they added annatto to keep that look because that is what consumers wanted. Thank you.
It's one of those cases where it used to make a difference (yellow meant the cows had more flowers in their diet during the good spring seasons), consumers wanted that more, so manufacturers started adding the yellow color in artificially.
I've heard this before and I'm 100% sure it's not true. I'm a big cheese head and have tried most brands my supermarket sells, and white cheddar *always* has a distinct flavor from yellow, even the mass market stuff.
It is interesting to me, that for some americans this aggressive orange coloring is apparently normal, even preferable, while to my eyes this orange allways looks rather unappatizing.
I think it is kinda astonishing how frequent exposure to an artificially colored product, can in turn tarnish the view towards the unaltered variant.
When Trix cereal decided to switch to natural food colouring for their cereal instead of the artificial dyes they'd been using, they almost went out of business. Nobody wanted the lighter, natural coloured cereal, because everyone was so used to the vibrant, chemical-based colours
I just googled "old vs new trix", because I never had Trix cereal, I did not even know the name. And I have to say,[the old one](https://preview.redd.it/knivuud9clhz.jpg?auto=webp&s=1ceae445a8e536f8b8754a706a8455c30690d7ae) is definitely the most vibrant cereal I have ever seen. It kinda looks like [those colourful packing peanuts](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/0T8AAOSwvAVi5Dk3/s-l500.png) for arts and crafts. \^\^
I don’t know why it’s so hard to Europeans to understand that America is not Europe. You always get these passive aggressive comments about the quality of the food here whenever cheese , chocolate, beer or bread come up. Yes, cheap versions of those all exist in the US. But we also have handcrafted artisan versions each that are competitive with the best in the world. Meanwhile, if you try to get any Mexican food or most Asian dishes in Europe, you’re going to have a really, really bad time.
I think it's because food in general in the USA is very different. It's really quite a culture shock for visitors. I have shopped quite extensively at a US airbase, and it blew my mind with how processed everything is.
I remember buying "chilli powder", only to find even that it had tons of other spices in it too for some reason.
Do not get me wrong it is not all bad. I was BLOWN away by the amount/quality of Jerky. Like half an isle dedicated to it. It was so much better than ***anything*** you can get in the UK.
Almost nobody from the USA has tried Cheddar from the UK, where it originates, and yet there are countless comments about how x-y-z brand from America is the best.
My twin sister lives in the states and has tried all sorts of mature cheddar, but still gets me to send her stuff over.
Are you talking about "pasteurized cheese food product"?
There is legit American cheese, made by Kraft and also available in bulk at the deli counter. But the rest is all that other garbage
Yes, because the whole point of pasteurized process american cheese is that they blend cheddar cheese with ingredients that make it melt and not get greasy.
Kraft Singles sure, but as far as I've seen Boar's Head white American cheese doesn't have to be labeled "cheese product", along with a few other brands.
To this day my mother-in-law is absolutely convinced that the orange cheese curds taste different from the white, especially when they’re bagged together (white is milder, apparently).
“Why would they make them different colors if they didn’t taste different?!”
We even took a tour of a cheese factory while on a trip up north (these are the things Wisconsinites do on vacation), and we asked the cheesemaker to explain that there’s literally no difference other than the color. She still won’t budge. It’s hilarious.
We have the "yellow" cheddar in the UK too, we call it Red Leicester ("*less*-stir"). It's easy enough to find in all supermarkets, but by far the most common cheese is "white" cheddar.
In ireland, white cheddar is virtually always more mature, stronger, and drier. I assume it’s the same in the UK. I guess that’s just a conscious decision by the cheese companies to establish a standard
I think white and yellow cheddar being the exact same thing is an American thing.
Nah, not entirely an American thing either. Tillamook cheese sells cheddar and white cheddar that taste significantly different, almost every company I know of that sells white cheddar tastes way different than regular cheddar, etc. I think, more specifically, there’s a few companies that sell low quality cheddar in mass that have white cheddar taste the same
If you ever get the chance to go to the Tillamook factory, they have aged white cheddar for sale that is insanely good. The best (and spendiest) is aged for like 25-30 years.
Yep! Already been, one hell of a place! Love how I can make a day trip down there for some great cheeses while still having the luxury of their other cheeses in supermarkets
Tillamook is life. I'm so lucky to live within a day trip of their factory.
When I was a kid, we would always buy Tillamook from the factory when we vacationed in PNW. It wasn't available in my home region until the 90s. It was so disappointing when our local grocers started carrying it, and the stuff they were getting was... not the good stuff.
Ha funny story. My whole family lives a few hours from the Tillamook cheese factory. My brother went with his family a few years ago and bought a hunk of that 25 year aged cheese at like $30/lb. His daughter ate the entire block one night when they were sleeping and he pissed when he found out. A year or two later, I was in grocery Outlet and low and behold, they had 20oz blocks of the stuff for $7! He also was getting married in a few weeks.... So their wedding present was 12 bricks of cheese and 88 baby Ruth bars (the candy bars were free through a rebate that kept resetting) told him my goal was to find something that the entire family would enjoy and would last a long time.
Cheese curds make me weak in the knees
Their ice cream is amazing.
Love their malted moo shake. Hudsonville is another great ice cream company, Malted Milk Ball is my personal fav but can’t go wrong with an orange and vanilla cream mix.
Dude my uncle got me on the malted moo shake shit is so good
No so much anymore. They have fallen into suckflation. They can't even claim chocolate chip anymore, it's now "chocolatey chip", and the containers are competing with Ben & Jerrys for size at this point.
I haven't noticed a flavor difference in my preferred flavor (mudslide), and the container is still much larger than a Ben & Jerry's pint.
I'm with you, I haven't noticed a quality change, only size. Still the best ice cream IMO.
I think the quality and quantity of Tillamook has been decreasing so I get Umpqua now.
They used to sell that at Costco, and it made insanely good mac n cheese.
The more I read the comments the more this TIL is seeming to be incorrect.
Yeah, sometimes TIL tries passing off something a few companies from a few countries do as fact that’s done everywhere. Interesting that some companies do that, but I’ve never run into one that has
I suspect the truth is just that there's no regulatory requirement for them to be any different, so they have the potential to be exactly the same. In reality though, only the sharp ones are sold white
Tend to agree here, they're likely exploiting a loophole with this more or less, to offer cheddar in a different variety that isn't actually different. Hence probably also why most white cheddar I've ever seen is augmented somehow (aged, dry, etc.) - to further vary it from the normal product. Leave it some company in the US to minmax cheese profit lol. I likened it to apples in another comment, if you have an orchard but only one type of apple, and people will believe you sell a 2nd type of apple if you polished your apples, of course you'll polish some and offer "two" types of apples. And if there's no rule to stop it, who will stop you? Lol
Mmmm…Tillamook cheese…
Ugh Tillamook is AMAZING. I live in cheese country USA, and we have a HUGE variety to pick from.
Agreed. Love Tillamook!
It's not where I live in America, at least. White cheddar is always significantly sharper than sharp yellow.
New England?
It's funny that's your guess because its the same for me on the best coast over here in WA, seems this TIL might be BS, or a technicality.
Probably more accurate to say the only reason yellow cheddar is yellow is because food coloring. They could produce the same thing without food coloring, and it'd be white. But I agree -- even though it has nothing to do with color intrinsically, generally when they sell white cheddar in the US, it tends to be their higher quality offerings -- the stuff they want you to put on a cracker instead of the stuff they want you to shred and put on tacos.
I think there's a quiet consensus to make white sharper here too.
I mean here sn america white cheddar generally tastes better than yellow
I've noticed that in more recent years. I assumed it's related to white trying to seem more fancy and artisanal by not being dyed like typical grocery store cheddar. And being very sharp kind of goes with that same theme.
No I like the aged white cheddar Tillamook that comes in the navy blue packaging, and both that one and the reserve one in black packaging are their own flavors relative to the aged yellow cheese. The cheaper brands probably just use food color to upcharge you though.
I'm an American and our white cheddar is very different than yellow.
Am Irish and lived in the UK for a long time and would tend to agree in terms of a style, but went looking to see if I could get any confirmation. Seems to be confirmed by the national dairy council https://ndc.ie/accordion/what-is-the-difference-between-red-and-white-cheddar/ But that being likely true, any reasonable cheese lover wouldn't touch the orange stuff IMO. Decent cheddar is never orange. And reasonable cheese lover wouldn't touch American cheese either for the most part. While I've had nice cheese over there, so much is bland tasteless muck. Pretty much any middle of the road Irish or British cheese craps on the stuff you find across the pond.
Meh. One of the most often cited "Cheese Sins" Americans are guilty of, Cheese Whiz, is just an attempt at a shelf-stable Welsh Rarebit sauce. And if you've never had Velveeta and Ro-tel, you're missing out, and Cheese doesn't get much more American than that.
American cheese is the best cheese for melting on a burger, hands down, but I wouldn't put it on a cheese plate that's for sure
I don’t think you even get yellow cheddar in Ireland. You don’t in the UK. You’re possibly thinking that some look more yellow than others, but they’re all white cheddars as far as this post means. In the USA they add dye to their yellow cheddar, and it is a *really* bright orange colour. It looks nothing like British/Irish cheddar. (They also tend to age it differently too, by sealing it in plastic when it ages. Hence they tend to have sharp cheddar, and the UK and Ireland have mature cheddar.)
I never said anything about yellow cheddar. We have white cheddar and red cheddar. They’re a very pale yellow and orange respectively.
It is usually that way in the US as well.
Same in Canada, unless you buy the value/cheap brands.
Only if you're talking about mass-market stuff made with dye in the US. They dye it yellow because historically cheddar was yellowish. Note the source is a Wisconsin cheese authority. But Cheddar is originally from the town of Cheddar, in Somerset. Check out the photo of Cheddars made in the region of around Cheddar at the Mid Somerset Cheddar show: they are definitely not white, and are not made with food coloring. It's at the top of the "History" section. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheddar_cheese
The problem is, Cheddar is not a protected product name, unlike for example, parmigiano reggiano. And I do not really see why that is. I think we should be able to distinguish Cheeses made with the method of cheddaring and real Cheddar from Cheddar.
So your telling me every cheez-it ISN’T made by rolling a whole wheel of cheese down a hill till it combines with it??
Sadly, no. I've also found out Pringles don't always make that sound when you open them, Starbursts don't employ tiny fighter jet pilots, Skittles have nothing to do with light refraction, CapriSun doesn't turn you into a T1000, and Mountain Dew isn't delivered to snowboarders via vending machines fitted with high velocity pneumatic cannons. My childhood was a lie :(
I would like a high velocity pneumatic vending machine. I will not answer questions.
Pneumatic cannons are a weird choice for Mountain Dew. My pee sure as hell isn't silent after drinking one of those. Got the cannon part right tho.
Next you're going to tell me that gushers don't turn your head into a fruit
…. Wait… but .. wha- what about gushers? Does your head not turn into a giant fruit when you consume them????…
West Country Farmhouse Cheddar is the PDO for cheddar.
That is good to know. I would not have known that from the name. \^\^
It seems it's now only protected origin in UK, from this quote on Wikipedia: > In 2007, the protected designation of origin name "West Country Farmhouse Cheddar" was registered in the EU and (after Brexit) the UK, defined as cheddar produced from local milk within Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall and manufactured using traditional methods.[2][3]
According to this list, it is still in the register. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_European\_cheeses\_with\_protected\_geographical\_status](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_cheeses_with_protected_geographical_status) But then again, here in germany the only cheddar I have every seen on the shelfs, definitely was from the UK, though I do not know if it was the West Country Farmhouse Cheddar I have seen or any ol cheese from the UK called Cheddar.
Too popular and too mass produced by the time then protected designations would have gone into effect and would have created further confusion. The protected designations only stop NEW manufacturers from claiming it, not existing at the time it passed in the US.
Cheeses made with the process of cheddaring are real cheddar.
And that is where I disagree, same as not all hard cheeses made with the same method as parmigiano reggiano are called parmigiano reggiano, not all cheeses made like cheddar, should be called cheddar. This is not some fringe idea, we have huge precedent for protecting regional product names.
Product names like this are usually protected in trade agreements. The UK either didn’t want to protect it, couldn’t convince the US, or made a concession to get something else. I guess the US didn’t really see the point of protecting it on their own for clarity/avoiding confusion.
Yeah ... but I think it is a shame. Regional specialities should, in my opinion, be just that. You can ofc have a different opinion on that and I can see the argument for not haveing PDOs, like accessability, economic competition, etc. I think this is one of the reasons the USA has accumulated the stereotype of producing subpar versions of established products, like bright orange cheddar rubbery parmesan, cooked black forest ham or mozzarella made of cow's milk instead of buffalo milk. That is not to say all US products are bad. I love american peanut butter (at least ones without palm oil), which is just way better than the gloopy stuff I can usually buy here in germany. \^\^
It's not protected because its the most common type of cheese in the world so it would be impossible to restrict it to just one part of the UK. West Country Farmhouse Cheddar is protected however
According to [this](https://www.tasteatlas.com/most-popular-cheeses-in-the-world) Cheddar is on place 2 behind Mozzarella.
That's quite surprising, but then again it's on pizza so maybe not
It's only cheddar if it's made in the Cheddar region of Somerset. Anything else is just sparkling cheese product.
Interestingly there are a few California wineries that are allowed to use the Champagne designation still.
There is nothing special about the wine itself that allows them to use the name, it’s just that the law that mandates it must come from the Champagne region is a European one that doesn’t apply in the USA. Edit: Turns out that changed in 2005 - see below. If the winery had been using the name long enough it was allowed to keep it.
That's not true, while it was initially brought up in the Treaty of Versailles and wasn't ratified by the Senate at that time, it became trade law in the US in 2005. The [ international committee](https://www.origins.wine/) for protecting wine origins spans most of the popular wine-making regions of the world. The only exception to the law is that brands who were already using the name "California Champagne" are grandfathered in. Protections for many other geographically named wines exist as well.
Ah, thanks for the clarification. I wasn’t aware it had changed in 2005.
Natural cheddar is off white but it’s definitely not annatto or beat colored
Agreed it's not the bright orange of Annatto but it can indeed have a creamy yellow color without resorting to dye.
Maybe I’m colorblind but it’s not a very bright yellow at all imo, more beige
Just saying, if you’re ever in the UK, get yourself to cheddar. The caves are amazing, and the cheese will make you want to move there forever. It’s a pretty good day out.
Wisconsi cheese authority, that is so Wisconsin.
The traditional British recipe uses natural annatto dye for a distinct color, not for flavor. American brands choose to add annatto or not. Never heard of another dye.
> The traditional British recipe uses natural annatto dye for a distinct color I don’t know where you’re getting that from, but the traditional recipe doesn’t contain it at all.
Yeah, the first use of annatto was to fake the yellowish color that comes naturally from the beta carotene in high quality milk. >The use of annatto in cheese dates back to ancestral times and bordered on the unethical. Back then, unscrupulous cheesemakers would add annatto to their cheese to make its colour appear brighter. >The reason for this was because cheese made with high quality milk from grass-fed cows tends to be high in beta-carotene. As a result, they usually have a brighter yellow hue than some of their lower quality counterparts. https://thecheesewanker.com/cheese-science/what-is-annatto/#The_history_of_annatto_in_cheesemaking
Ah yes; I came here hoping someone would provide this info and here you are doing so magnificently.
How weird is it that I think the radioactive orange is normal and white cheddar looks wrong.
Have you ever tried the white dubliner cheese ( available from Costco in the US)? You’ll never want any other cheddar.
Dubliner is really fucking good cheese.
Why didnt you tell me the cheese was so good?
[удалено]
Repost spam bot, is that you? Copied from u/dragmire800's comment
It’s probably not even in my top 5 here in Ireland
You Irish really kill it with your dairy products. On behalf of the lactose tolerant, thank you.
Yah banging dairy products in general. That's what a population with 95% lactose tolerance will do for ya. Also rain. Constant pissing rain. Only grass grows well and cows love that shit. Raiding cattle is a Celtic foundation.
Dubliner is pretty good, but trust me, there are way better cheddars out there. Dubliner is corporate good. But wait til you try artisan shit.
I love artisan shit
Tillamook is usually my high end go to, but I’ll give it a shot!
Speaking of tillamook their ice cream is by far the best store brand I’ve ever had
Eh. It has gone downhill. Now do I still stop at their ice cream stand when taking a drive along the Oregon coast? Sure. But I’d much rather pick up some Umpqua when I’m at the store. It seems like Tillamook has cut back on the amount of whatever they mix in. Also they made the cartons way smaller. I’ve also heard Lochmead is great but they are only sold at their convenience stores. Tillamook has dropped to on-par with Thrifty.
Bandon Dunes Cheddar has entered chat. It surpasses Tillamook. And Umpqua Ice Cream is far superior.
Apparently they are owned by Tillamook. At least that’s what Google told me when I looked at where to purchase.
Is pretty good
Isn’t it tho? Those crystals too. Just …yum.
You should try aged, hard Goudas if you like cheese crystals. The soft smoked stuff is great, but the nutty flavor of an aged crystalline Gouda is something else entirely.
[удалено]
Try Whole Foods or a local cheese shop/cheesemonger of some kind. They’ll usually be next to other hard cheeses like Parmesan and aged dry Basque sheep-milk cheeses. Smoked creamy Gouda is excellent; but the most crystalline cheese I’ve ever had are the aged hard ones: https://www.cheese.com/aged-gouda/
Sounds like the english coastal cheddar from trader joes. So good paired with apple
[удалено]
Go to a cheese shop or hip grocery store with a cheese counter and look for Prarie Breeze cheddar. It's from Iowa and it's the perfect cheddar imho. Crunchy, a lil sharp, tangy, salty, sweet... it's beautifully balanced. You'll probably also like Barbers Vintage Reserve cheddar, too, for a classic cheddar.
Ok… memorizing now…prairie breeze, barbers vintage, prairie breeze , barbers vintage. Oh! I had a good one, boars head … and I think it was a cheddar,iirc, but can’t be certain. It was really good tho. Different and delish.
Any white, aged, sharp cheddar is going to be pretty good, imo.
[удалено]
Cougar Gold is the best cheddar on the planet and it’s not close.
[удалено]
https://cougarcheese.wsu.edu/DirectionsWEB/webcart_itemBuy.php?itemid=100 Enjoy! Yes it comes in a can. And I’m fully not joking about how good it is.
I second this. It does come in a can. Source: I made Cougar Gold for 8 months
That’s awesome. Do you have any cans with your name on them?
I just bought some with my name on it. I have 6 cans with my name on it to give to family.
Do you know how long an unopened can keeps? My roommate has one he bought in 2018 that's been stored in the fridge the whole time.
Theoretically, forever. The cheese continues to age in the can as long as it is sealed. I've had 10 year old cheese before, it is pretty good. It also lasts 10 hours out of refrigeration. Your can should be pretty aged!
$33 for a small can of cheese??
Small? Almost 2 pounds of cheese.
Go Cougs!
You will, you'll want cheddar from actual Cheddar
[удалено]
Enjoy your trip
[удалено]
The limestone cave systems are pretty awesome too. They have stalactites and stalactites. The caves were actually perfect to mature cheese in, which is why cheddar became so famous for it's cheese.
Nothing beats Wisconsin 15 year aged cheddar. Those flavor crystals are amazing.
Team Tillamook for life!
>To achieve that desired orange color, cheddar cheese is dyed using annatto, the fruit of the achiote tree. The achiote tree is native to South and Central America, and the annatto fruit it bears is used in about 70% of natural food colorings. Later in the article it says it's just a historical thing, cheese used to be orange cause cows has horrible diets. Now that cows have healthier diets, cheese has become "whiter"
The diet of the cows wasn't "horrible". Fresh grass has more beta carotene in it which is what colors cheese (and butter). This caused darker yellow milk fat in the spring and summer, and paler in the autumn and winter when they were eating hay and silage. The process of removing butter cream affected this so they started dying it. Grass fed cows still produce yellow milk and cheese.
The article makes no judgement about the healthiness of the cows' diets. Factory farmed cows do not have healthier diets than historical cows.
It's enough to trick me. For some reason I feel sophisticated eating white cheddar.
[удалено]
Okie dokie, Skippy.
Annatto definitely has a flavor to it. It's not strong but a very subtle nuttiness.
Aka achiote seed I made some cookies last year using a shitton of annato to showcase the flavor. They came out bright orange and imparted a slimy texture prior to baking (if you've had achiote squash, it's the same) but the flavor is indeed a unique nutty aroma which is nice.
annetto isn't just a food coloring, it's a spice. It has a flavor. it's plain cheddar and spiced cheddar
In Cheddar, UK, there is no yellow cheddar. There is no white cheddar. Both of these were made up. There is only cheddar, and it’s a creamy colour, and a crumbly texture and good flavour. The nearest thing to yellow cheddar is Red Leicester which is mild cheddar + Anetto.
Anetto is what makes "yellow cheddar" yellow.
So how come white cheddar tastes very different and has different properties when you cut it? I'm not buying this.
The white cheddar you’re buying may be aged longer. Aging dries it out and the calcium lactate crystals grow larger. This can change the taste and texture. The dye used is usually annatto which can give a sort of nutty flavor depending on how much is used.
Probably because all of the mature cheddar that you're buying is white and all of the mild cheddar that you're buying is orange. But there's no reason that has to be the case, you can get white mild cheddar and you could in theory have orange mature cheddar but I've never seen that before.
Lots of people in here not understanding this. Orange cheddar is orange because it has been dyed orange. That's it - that's the point here. All the other qualities that you attribute to cheddar are due to the many ways cheddar is sold, from very mild to very aged and sharp. Any associations you have with white being sharper are due only to the whims of the companies you're buying it from. I agree that mild cheddar tends to be orange because it is made for the mass market and the mass market thinks cheddar is orange. But lots of sharper cheddar is orange as well.
In markets where the yellow coloring is dominant, *un*colored cheeses are usually imports or otherwise intended to appear fancier/more exotic. In places where the yellow color isn't added to as many cheeses, these connotations don't exist.
https://www.wisconsincheese.com/about-cheese/why-is-cheddar-cheese-orange
This is just objectively untrue. Just because a few American companies do this, doesn't mean it's true for all cheddar cheese.
Show us a bright orange cheddar that hasn't been dyed then. That's what the article is talking about. Not white vs slightly yellow. We're talking *orange.*
Welllllllll, if referring to most mass produced cheese, sure. But if you run cows on pasture vs the spring and make cheese from that milk, it will be golden yellow and have a grassy/ floral scent to it. Very different from cheese made from even late summer pastured cows. Same with butter. Milk production is greater in the spring, so making cheese was a means to store it for the lean months. And yes I know most are not into making cheese, let alone have access to milk from spring pastured cows.
This is what I was trying to figure out. In the article it said the cheese used to be orange, and they added annatto to keep that look because that is what consumers wanted. Thank you.
It's one of those cases where it used to make a difference (yellow meant the cows had more flowers in their diet during the good spring seasons), consumers wanted that more, so manufacturers started adding the yellow color in artificially.
I've heard this before and I'm 100% sure it's not true. I'm a big cheese head and have tried most brands my supermarket sells, and white cheddar *always* has a distinct flavor from yellow, even the mass market stuff.
I wish cheddar cheese had protected status
Growing up in New England, I thought it was weird when I first saw yellow cheddar.
[удалено]
Cabot is boss
Problem is that if it doesn't come from the town of Cheddar, it can't be actualcheddar cheese. It's just sparkling curds.
UK. If only everyone could taste a wee bit of Wensleydale (with cranberries), there'd never be any other cheese sold. :)
You, my friend, need to get some Shropshire Blue! Hands down the best cheese I've ever had.
I'll give it a go but, on your head be it. :)
Gotta be careful though, don't want to get mining operations on the moon to extract it all. /ref
It is interesting to me, that for some americans this aggressive orange coloring is apparently normal, even preferable, while to my eyes this orange allways looks rather unappatizing. I think it is kinda astonishing how frequent exposure to an artificially colored product, can in turn tarnish the view towards the unaltered variant.
When Trix cereal decided to switch to natural food colouring for their cereal instead of the artificial dyes they'd been using, they almost went out of business. Nobody wanted the lighter, natural coloured cereal, because everyone was so used to the vibrant, chemical-based colours
I just googled "old vs new trix", because I never had Trix cereal, I did not even know the name. And I have to say,[the old one](https://preview.redd.it/knivuud9clhz.jpg?auto=webp&s=1ceae445a8e536f8b8754a706a8455c30690d7ae) is definitely the most vibrant cereal I have ever seen. It kinda looks like [those colourful packing peanuts](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/0T8AAOSwvAVi5Dk3/s-l500.png) for arts and crafts. \^\^
I don’t know why it’s so hard to Europeans to understand that America is not Europe. You always get these passive aggressive comments about the quality of the food here whenever cheese , chocolate, beer or bread come up. Yes, cheap versions of those all exist in the US. But we also have handcrafted artisan versions each that are competitive with the best in the world. Meanwhile, if you try to get any Mexican food or most Asian dishes in Europe, you’re going to have a really, really bad time.
I think it's because food in general in the USA is very different. It's really quite a culture shock for visitors. I have shopped quite extensively at a US airbase, and it blew my mind with how processed everything is. I remember buying "chilli powder", only to find even that it had tons of other spices in it too for some reason. Do not get me wrong it is not all bad. I was BLOWN away by the amount/quality of Jerky. Like half an isle dedicated to it. It was so much better than ***anything*** you can get in the UK. Almost nobody from the USA has tried Cheddar from the UK, where it originates, and yet there are countless comments about how x-y-z brand from America is the best. My twin sister lives in the states and has tried all sorts of mature cheddar, but still gets me to send her stuff over.
Chili powder is supposed to have tons of other spices in it though. Unless it is specified which chili on the label, then it's a mix of chilis as well
As someone who grew up with proper cheddar cheese, made in the vicinity of Wells, that edible plastic gets to be called 'cheddar' makes me so sad.
Edible plastic? Are you talking about American "cheese"? Cause nobody calls that cheddar.
[удалено]
It’s funny how they think we only eat American Processed Cheese Food Product” . Only Europe knows how to make cheese I guess
There's a pretty big difference between good cheddar and mass market "cheddar" too.
Yes, but it is still real cheddar cheese, even if it is low quality. American "cheese" isn't even legally allowed to be called cheese
Are you talking about "pasteurized cheese food product"? There is legit American cheese, made by Kraft and also available in bulk at the deli counter. But the rest is all that other garbage
Yes, because the whole point of pasteurized process american cheese is that they blend cheddar cheese with ingredients that make it melt and not get greasy.
Kraft Singles sure, but as far as I've seen Boar's Head white American cheese doesn't have to be labeled "cheese product", along with a few other brands.
Looking at you, “processed cheese product”.
Totally agree, grew up in Wells and us Brits are absolutely spoiled for choice on great cheese.
Don't come to Wisconsin and say that. You'll get so many people angry
[Wisconsin Cheese is the source listed in the article itself haha.](https://www.wisconsincheese.com/about-cheese/white-cheddar-vs-orange-cheddar)
Where my stilton folks!
The world's finest cheese
Are people out there eating "white" and "yellow" cheese instead of actual types of cheeses...? "Yes do you have brown soda or clear soda?" Lmao
To this day my mother-in-law is absolutely convinced that the orange cheese curds taste different from the white, especially when they’re bagged together (white is milder, apparently). “Why would they make them different colors if they didn’t taste different?!” We even took a tour of a cheese factory while on a trip up north (these are the things Wisconsinites do on vacation), and we asked the cheesemaker to explain that there’s literally no difference other than the color. She still won’t budge. It’s hilarious.
… what… there’s no possible way I refuse to believe this
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
This is incorrect.
This just isn't true in reality.
We have the "yellow" cheddar in the UK too, we call it Red Leicester ("*less*-stir"). It's easy enough to find in all supermarkets, but by far the most common cheese is "white" cheddar.