SC - The Color Blue
alysk at ix.netcom.com
alysk at ix.netcom.com
Wed Sep 1 14:18:12 PDT 1999
Toby of Isenfir asked about where to get a blue color for food. The material below is an old
version of an article that Cindy Renfrow and I are working on. These are the "blue" references
that I found in cookery books. Keep in mind that the material has been much updated since this
was written but maybe this will help. Alys Katharine
Food Coloring Agents - Blue
My aim was to find and list each coloring agent for a particular color and to provide at least
one documented source for using that color. My sources are primarily English or cookery books
translated into English for which I have given the date of the original publication. For some
coloring agents I have provided comments based on information in other texts or from other
sources. The "chemist" is a professional chemist working for a major US corporation whose name
I have temporarily misplaced. I submitted the colors to her to see what comments she might have
about toxicity, etc. "Renfrow" is Cindy Renfrow who published _Take A Thousand Eggs or More_ .
I had correspondence with her regarding some of her comments about coloring agents in her book.
1. Fine azure, ground. See Scully's _The Viandier of Taillevent_ and Murrell's _A Daily
Exercise for Ladies and Gentlewomen_(1617). Murrell indicates it is very dangerous and to steep
it in vinegar to kill its strength. Chemist warns that it may change color in vinegar.
2. "Blew". See Murrell's _A Daily Exercise for Ladies and Gentlewomen_. It "must bee ground
with thinne gum-Arabick water...fit to garnish but perillous to eate." My guess is that both
"blew" and the above-mentioned azure are "azurite", a hydrous copper carbonate, rather than the
ground stone lapis lazuli. I understand that lapis, by itself, is not toxic unless it is
adulterated with azurite.
3. Mulberry extract. See _The Forme of Cury_ (circa 1390).
4. Heliotrope. This would be the French flower, not the modern one according to one SCA cook. I
have not found a period reference except by the name "turnsole". See the next entry.
5. Turnsole. See _Du Fait de Cuisine_. It recommends a good deal of turnsole and soak it in
milk. _The French Cook_ by Varenne (1653) mentions turnsole grated in water with a little
powder of Iris. Turnsole must be used with an alkali to produce blue rather than red.
6. "Blue bottles 'in corne' ". See _A Daily Exercise for Ladies and Gentlewomen_. Renfrow
notes, "A cornfower with a blue blossom, esp. 'Campanula' or 'Scilla' species, presumably ground
to a powder & mixed with whatever was called for.
7. Indigo stone dissolved in water. This is not from a period reference but from a cookery book
of 1909. However, "indigo woad" or "yned wawdeas" is listed under the color green.
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