[Sca-cooks] blue food

[Cindy M. Renfrow]

Ashes from the fire?

The recipe in Epulario, "To make Gealies of flesh or fish, and of divers
colours in one platter" says "you may make a sangune colour with Carriots
rosted in the embers, and being rosted, make cleane the outside with a
knife which is sanguine,...". The cleaned roasted carrots are strained
through a cheesecloth or strainer & used to color white broth red.  What if
the ember-roasted carrots were not well cleaned and still had ash clinging
to them when they were strained? Would the anthocyanins react with the ash
to turn blue?

(BTW, the recipe Thomas is talking about just says "...for a peacock-blue
color [pavonazi], take cooked carrots and grind some of their skin..."  It
doesn't specify how they're supposed to be cooked, what color the carrots
are, or what kind of pot to use. They're to be added to an acidic liquified
gelatine.