Comment by blackboxxx | Hacker News Reader

Comment by blackboxxx | Hacker News Reader

Not sure if this is an urban myth or not, but I've heard Cheese Wiz is actually grey. Orange food coloring is later added to the goo to give it that cheddar color.

The orange color you associate with cheddar is artificial. Originally it was due to annatto, though they may use something else now.

Is cheddar usually orange? I think all of the cheddar I have ever bought in NH and VT is a pale yellow.

I'm crazy about cheeses, but the only orange cheeses I've ever seen were all very poor brands, unless I'm forgetting something.

It actually varies by state in the US, and by country. Cheddar cheese is always "cheddar colored", for local values of cheddar color. Varies from off-white to orange.

No. In my local supermarket, and in every supermarket I have ever been in (live in the Northeast, but have been plenty of other markets in the US and abroad) there is both natural white cheddar and colored cheddar, although sometimes the colored stuff is missing.

Pictures are helpful. http://www.pepperidgefarm.com/Images/Products/prdLarge_12053... for Cheddar Goldfish, this is what's usually in stores: http://staticc.wisegeek.com/images/calories/calories-in-medi...

I (and I suspect most Americans) would never associate something like this with Cheddar Cheese: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Somerset-Cheddar.jpg (or any other pic on the page for that matter, except for "#19": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheddar_cheese )

I'll have to try some VT cheddar sometime. I stopped defending cheddar's taste (which is none, though I still eat it) ever since I was exposed to real cheeses in my junior high French class.

Thanks. I've definitely seen goldfish before but never really associated cheddar with that bright-orange color. I always called those "nuclear cheese" because of how eerily bright it is. I don't recall ever seeing that in normal block-of-cheese form though, but maybe I'm mistaken.

In VT and NH if you buy any cheddar at all from a farm it is the color of the image you posted and must of it is very fragrant.

Really? Everywhere I've been in the States the amount of white cheddar is roughly equal to colored cheddar, and in the gourmet cheese section there is rarely any colored cheddar.

Here's another couple images I've found: http://blog.thenickstevens.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/ch... http://www.flickr.com/photos/claire_waverly/4686708528/ I guess I have seen white cheddar, but most often mixed with the yellow/orange coloring people are familiar with. e.g. "cheddar jack": http://www.osceolacheese.com/catalog/images/hickory%20smoked... In any case I'd bet people associate white cheese more with mozzarella (pizza cheese, cheese stick/string cheese) than cheddar. Another cheddar product I associate with is Mac&Cheese.

The gourmet cheese section/island is different! And I agree there's rarely coloured cheese. I suspect few shoppers who go straight to the Cheese Aisle (which is dominated by yellow cheddar/cheddar varieties) even know of its existence, even if they walk by it, let alone dare sample anything new/different/highly priced.

You specifically want a cheddar that has been aged for multiple years; three years is common. Grafton cheddar from Vermont is considered to be very good cheese.

Originally it was (allegedly) due to beta carotene in cow's milk. The orange coloring was used to mask seasonal variation in cheese coloring (same as how every other food is now carefully color-controlled) and eventually "orange" became a defining cheddar characteristic.

It's still annatto, which is also used to color butter (among countless other things).

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