The difference between yellow cheddar and white cheddar

[unmuzzleme]

Anyone ever try the English Aged White Cheddar from Trader Joe's?
It's my favorite.

I'm so excited that a Trader Joe's is opening near me! My sister tells me great things about it...I'll have to check out that cheddar!

Thanks for the tip,
Carly

 

[Dina]

We sampled lots of these cheeses while visiting The Cheese Shop in VA. This link might give you more info http://www.cheeseshopcarmel.com/cheese/alphabetically/alpha1.htm

 

[mish]

There is a difference, other than color. Check this out:

http://www.ilovecheese.com/typesof_cheese.asp

 

[BreezyCooking]

I don't understand Mish - that site just sends you to a page with some Cheddar recipes. What exactly is the difference besides color?

 

[mish]

I don't understand Mish - that site just sends you to a page with some Cheddar recipes. What exactly is the difference besides color?

Here ya go, Breezy:

http://www.ilovecheese.com/cheese_profile.asp?Cheese=Cheddar

I clicked on C for Cheddar, not the recipes.

The difference is taste, texture, color and melting. Aged cheeses will have a different taste as well. If you're using cheese to dump in a mac 'n cheese casserole, I imagine the color does not matter as much as the taste & how it works with the rest of the ingredients in the recipe. If you're buying the shredded stuff in a bag, yes there is a difference in taste and the crap that's added in. Just read the label.

I find white has a nuttier flavor, & orange pj's can range from mild to sharp. In short - there is a difference in flavor. And, please, don't buy that processed stuff. Who knows what color it started out with. I pay a lot of $ for good cheese at a deli counter, freshly sliced, & know what I'm getting.

Another example - mozzarella - you can buy fresh (the best), or that plastic stuff in a ball. They're both white, but miles apart in taste.

BTW, if you're making a mac n cheese casserole, try Gruyere and add some spinach.

 

[jennyema]

Here ya go, Breezy:

http://www.ilovecheese.com/cheese_profile.asp?Cheese=Cheddar

I clicked on C for Cheddar, not the recipes.

There is a difference in taste, texture, color and melting.
quote]


Between white "cheddar" and cheddar colored orange?

I don't think anyone is disputing the fact that aging changes the taste and texture of cheese. But merely coloring it with annato or other food coloring really doesn't, IMO.

 

[BreezyCooking]

Thanks Mish - but it's really still just a few recipes & a remark that Cheddar can range from white to orange, which we already know. Where does it say that there's a difference between the white & the orange - apart from the aging factor which, again, we already know. Not being snarky here - perhaps I'm just missing something.

I fully realize that true Cheddars will differ in taste & texture according to aging. The original question was why White Cheddar differs in taste/texture from Yellow Cheddar, as well as the comment that Yellow Cheddars all have added food colorings.

While I'd like to say it's just the aging process, I've also had some wonderful artisinal "white" cheddars that could equal their uncolored artisinal yellow counterparts.

I believe the answer to this question is that it's truly up to the artisinal cheesemaker & the aging process. Unless you're talking about processed supermarket cheddar.

 

[Gretchen]

I like white cheddar better than yellow also, but it is usually a much better quality cheese also. Think Vermont cheddar vs. Kraft.

 

[jennyema]

I like white cheddar better than yellow also, but it is usually a much better quality cheese also. Think Vermont cheddar vs. Kraft.

But Kraft makes lots of white cheddar and Cabot (Vermont) makes some yellow/orange stuff In addition to some great high-end cheeses).

Though most good quality cheddar is white or pale yellow/gold, IMO being white is not itself an indicia of quality. Who makes it and how it is made is.

 

[Andy M.]

You can buy poor quality white and excellent yellow.

You can get great white and awful yellow.

Bottom line appears to be that you cannot judge a cheddar by its color.

 

[GB]

you cannot judge a cheddar by its color.

Words to live by Andy!

 

[Gretchen]

I didn't say that all white cheddars are better than all yellows. Of course it isn't an indication of the best quality.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Balderson Heritage White Cheddar is far Superior to Balderson Yellow Cheddar oin both flavor and texture. But it is due to the care with which the cheese is produced.

Another example of this can be made with Colby Cheese. I have never seen a white colby. But most Ccolby cheese is young our medium aged as the cheese has a robust flavor that rivals that of a good cheddar. The texture is medium hard and creamy, while at the same time crumbling slightly when broken. However, there is a colby made in Pinconning Michigan that is aged. It is so much sharper than any other colbly I have had, and though it has the same color, is far cremier and flavorful than the more comon young colby chubs found on most store-shelves. In fact the Pinconing Cheese is simply called Sharp Pinconing, rather than Colby.

The difference is the amount of milkfat, the aging, and the care taken to produce the cheese. IMO, Color doesn't play into it at all.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[Banana Brain]

Okay, I have a confession to make. The cheddars I've compared were Tillamook Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar and Special Reserve Extra Sharp Cheddar (yellow). According to the website, and I swear I never noticed this when I read the packages, that particular white is aged over two years and the yellow only over fifteen months. The yellow is described as "the most complex of the yellow cheddars". The white is "the sharpest of our cheeses". I'm pretty sure that those two are always the most expensive of all the Tillamook and they're the same price. The only reason I can think of that one would be colored and the other not would be a marketing stradegy, so that a person wouldn't just get the more aged one and feel like they had the top notch flavor. They would feel the need to get both cheeses and that they were getting a completly different type of cheese. Basically the color is there for distinction between the "fine cheeses". But what a difference in taste 9 months can make, right? So for right now I'm erasing from my mind anything I think I know between the taste difference in yellow and white cheddar.

 

[Banana Brain]

Here ya go, Breezy:

http://www.ilovecheese.com/cheese_profile.asp?Cheese=Cheddar

I clicked on C for Cheddar, not the recipes.

The difference is taste, texture, color and melting. Aged cheeses will have a different taste as well. If you're using cheese to dump in a mac 'n cheese casserole, I imagine the color does not matter as much as the taste & how it works with the rest of the ingredients in the recipe. If you're buying the shredded stuff in a bag, yes there is a difference in taste and the crap that's added in. Just read the label.

I find white has a nuttier flavor, & orange pj's can range from mild to sharp. In short - there is a difference in flavor. And, please, don't buy that processed stuff. Who knows what color it started out with. I pay a lot of $ for good cheese at a deli counter, freshly sliced, & know what I'm getting.

Another example - mozzarella - you can buy fresh (the best), or that plastic stuff in a ball. They're both white, but miles apart in taste.

BTW, if you're making a mac n cheese casserole, try Gruyere and add some spinach.

Hmm. According to that white cheddar is more "tangy". I'd never tasted that at all, I found it more nutty.

 

[unmuzzleme]

Yum, Tillamook cheddar! I'd almost forgotten about that one....thanks for reminding me Banana Brain! All this talk about cheddar is making me long for my old job back...I may have to make a trip to the cheese shoppe!

 

[Banana Brain]

I've noticed that there has been a trend in cheese-snacks lately to come out suddenly with "white cheddar" cheese snacks (cheeze-its, smart puffs, pirates booty, cheetos, kraft mac and cheese, etc.). Since most of the orange colored "chaddar" ones were already pumped full of artificial cheese flavor to begin with, I wonder how they've changed the recipe for the white cheddar. There must be some difference in flavor they think they can taste which would cause them to change the recipe a certain and I'm wondering what it is. I've been googling like mad to find out the difference in ingredients in cheeze-its, but can't even find anything on them.

 

[jkath]

I've noticed that there has been a trend in cheese-snacks lately to come out suddenly with "white cheddar" cheese snacks (cheeze-its, smart puffs, pirates booty, cheetos, kraft mac and cheese, etc.). Since most of the orange colored "chaddar" ones were already pumped full of artificial cheese flavor to begin with, I wonder how they've changed the recipe for the white cheddar.

Maybe it's because so many toddler's parents don't like the day-glo orange smudges on everything in their house.

PS - unmuzzleme: TJ's is by far the best. You will absolutely love it!
When yours opens, I'll give you a list of favorites

 

[Banana Brain]

Yum, Tillamook cheddar! I'd almost forgotten about that one....thanks for reminding me Banana Brain! All this talk about cheddar is making me long for my old job back...I may have to make a trip to the cheese shoppe!

Your so lucky to have gotten that job at sixteen. What a wonderful job to involve sampling cheese and getting paid for it. I've been to the Tillamook factory by the way, and its quite fasinating. And OT: did you know Tillamook also makes ice cream? Its the best ice cream ever. I prefer it to Haagen-Dasz. They also make the best freaking ever vanilla bean yogurt.

 

[Mylegsbig]

from what i read in the past cheddar starts out white. A long time ago in some village in england the cows millk or something would make the cheddars have a varying color depending on the season of the year. So these farmers added some yellow/orange color to the cheese to make it uniform all year round, to make their product more desireable. I guess the tradition stuck