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Not really the marbled look I was going for... More of a granite, really... 

My notes are in my LiveJournal: http://mightyjesse.livejournal.com/124336.html

For the record, my cheese-making focus is normally on cheeses that are known to have existed within the medieval time frame... Cheese making for me is kind of a hobby within a hobby. ;-)

Looks like you dyed a small batch of curds before renneting right? Looks kewl but there's no way for the dye to transfer to the undyed curds. It kind of lines the cracks and crevases. Also if you dye before the pressing you get shaded curds rather than a solid color. Makes sense to me anyway.

JUst read your note and comments - a bidding war huh?

I would refer you to the multiple threads on making this cheese.  The actual process used and confirmed by members here varies considerably from what you did.

Debi: I actually added the dye just after the rennet and blended it all at once. Unfortunately, I didn't get started with the make until late, and just drained both sets of curds for an hour... I was meaning to leave the green curds with some liquid and completely drain the white set to allow for the marbling. (I did mine as a farmhouse cheddar because that's what the description of the Cahill cheese says it is...) Sadly, I have pregnancy brain and after 9:00 PM everything just shifts to auto-pilot. I was thinking that with some actual green curds, I could make the green spaces a little bit larger and more pronounced places than it was when I did this same experiment with porter beer a year ago, when I first started following these threads (boiled it down to make it double strength in color, and kill off all the yeasty beasties...). On that one, the veining was very light and I was hoping to get more areas of color concentration.

I'm going to try this again on a day when I don't have as many interruptions and can get started about 2 hours earlier, so I'm not having to think past my bed time.

I think it looks kind of neat.  If the green were black spots it'd look like a cow pattern.

Hey sometimes we mean well but life gets in the way - if it tastes good IMHO it's not really a failure! Just different than you expected. 

I wouldn't use food coloring. Not very medival. Whay ever happened to putting some sage and whey in the blender (Or mortar and pestle if you want to be medival) and making a super green extract of the real thing?

As for your method - I wouldn't die curds. I would go through milling and cheddaring and then mix in the green extract to the last of the cheddaring process, just before the final press.

It looks like adding the coloring at milling worked best. I would try it that way next.

Or maybe make some traditional cheddar curds and then dye some farmhouse curds and mix? Just seems like you want some nice white curds swimming in a smooth sea of color.

I think dying 1/4 of the curd separately worked well. I just have to adjust the amount of coloring so it's drked. I got a nice mix jus very pale.

Just bought an original English Aged Sage Derby yesterday. I examined it very well... it seems that they mixed the sage with spinach powder for color and volume. While the sage overpowers the spinach I can still feel the spinach. Not sure I like it so much. The texture is great though. The green stuff is marbled in the curd's knots with radius ranging 1/4" to 1/2" so this is definitely added after a second milling (I can see the knotting of the curd from the first milling where no green stuff resides)

Yeah that made more sense to me so I tried it that way. Are you saying there are piece of spinich in the cheese? Sounds good. Now for some artichokes ...

I didn't much care the the sage cheese I tried but I did like the technique and marbling. Very pretty.

These were not spinach pieces but rather spinach powder that was probably mixes with the sage to make higher volume of green matter without adding more of the overwhelming flavor and aroma of Sage. As for Artichokes - they pair beautifully with Gorgonzola. Crazy idea, try adding mild Lipase and/or penicillium roqueforti; make it blue.

I do a popular Balkan-style "Burek" hors d'oeuvres of a finger size puff pastry filled with Gorgonzola and diced artichoke hearts (pre-steam the hearts).  Seal it inside the dough in triangle or flower shape, baste lightly with egg wash, sprinkle a few sesame seeds, 350F oven for 15 minutes. Yummm (guaranteed!) These two flavors are a great match.

Sounds nice. I can touch the blues without gloves - makes me itch. I made a lovely Gorgonzola a few years back and ended up seeing a dermatologist only to find out I have a mild allergic reaction to the blue molds. Give me a rash like posin ivy. I guess it makes sense I am allergic to penicillin also. Must be a cousin mold or something.

Outch. That's annoying for a cheese maker. Still, if you want a Gorgonzola-ish flavor without the blue, try my suggestion: add Lipase!
It really kicks up the cheese sharpness a notch. Very Italian flavor. Use a little at first, see how you like the cheese and adjust it next round to your liking. I use 3/4 the recommended amount because I find it produces just enough sharpness in the front of the tongue while still avoiding the back-of-mouth bitterness that a full dose of lipase can produce.

I never though to make a blue cheese without the Penicillium Roqueforti. I wonder what that would taste like. I like Italian flavored cheeses.