Difference Between White and Yellow Cheddar Cheese

White vs yellow cheddar cheese

Cheese is one of the most-sought after baking and food ingredients in the whole world. People label it as delectable and divine. With its sour, salty and sweet flavors combined, cheese can definitely bring out the best tastes for whatever dish it is cooked with.

Cheddar cheese is one of the many kinds of cheeses that can be purchased in the market or can be processed at home. When people think of cheddar cheese, the image that pops into the minds is an image of a yellow or orange colored block. In fact, when someone thinks of cheese, the color dark yellow or orange immediately represents it. That is why when people go to the market to buy cheddar cheese; the orange colored cheddar gets sold more often than the white ones. Although there’s nothing wrong with choosing the orange over the white cheddars, this behavior is certainly a result of a very common misconception.

White cheddars are not different from Orange cheddar cheese. The flavor is the same, the texture is the same, the processing is pretty much the same, and the scent is very much the same. White and orange cheddar cheeses are like identical twins born of the same mother, only that they differ in color. Yes. The only thing that distinguishes the white cheddar from the orange one is the color. Here’s how.

The cheddar cheese, unlike other cheeses, is produced from pure cow’s milk. The milk, pasteurized or not, is then mixed with rennet (an ingredient that causes cheese to curdle). The cheese then enters the step called cheddaring, where right after the cheese is heated, the curd caused by rennet will be kneaded with salt. After that, the cheese is cut into cubes to drain the whey off and will be stacked and turned. It will take approximately 15 months for a cheese to mature and it is said that the longer the cheese is aged, the better tasting it will be. This is how white cheddar cheese is produced. They are matured inside caves. The white cheddar cheese is basically the natural color of the cheddar cheese.

However, since cheddar cheese is produced from pure cow’s milk, the cheese makers’ long time ago discovered that the milk produced by cows during summertime has a yellowish color in it because of the beta carotene content of the fresh grass that cows eat. But the color fades again when milks are produced during winter time. This is because cows eat hays or dried leaves on this season so the milk produced is pure white. That is why cheese makers came up with a solution of adding a dark yellow coloring agent into the cheese to give it more kick. The people in London prefer colored foods, so cheese makers added color to the white cheddar to make it more marketable.

And that is when orange cheddar cheese was produced. The process of creating the orange cheddar cheese is pretty much the same with the white cheddar cheese. The only factor that differentiates it from the white cheddar is the coloring agent added to it in the process of cheddaring. This coloring agent is called annatto (a pulp that surrounds the pulp of the achiote tree). Annatto is mixed with the rich cheese cream and turns it orange in the process. In the old times, pure annatto was directly mixed into the cheddar cheese, however in modern times, annatto is mixed with paprika oil to produce the desired color that the public already loves.

SUMMARY:

1.

White cheddar cheese and orange cheddar cheese do not differ except in color.
2.

White cheddar cheese is the product of the pure cow’s milk, while the orange cheddar cheese is a result of a coloring agent added to the cream in the process of cheddaring.

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