SC - The Color Blue

[alysk at ix.netcom.com]

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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