SC - Food dyes

[Christine Seelye-King]

I just ran across the recent Complete Anachronist #109 by Dame Alys and
Mistress Sincgiefu (Elise Fleming and Cindy Renrow), called "The Colorful
Cook".  They go into great detail on food coloring agents used in the Middle
Ages.  It is definitely worth ordering if you aren't subscribed to CA
anyway.
Mistress Christianna

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> [mailto:owner-sca-cooks at ansteorra.org]On Behalf Of Philip & Susan Troy
> Sent: Friday, March 30, 2001 12:55 PM
> To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> Subject: Re: SC - Food dyes
>
>
> lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:
> >
> > What did folks use "in period" to color foods?
> >
> > I know there was:
> >
> > red - alkanet (it's usually used as a fiber dye)
>
> I believe cochineal appears in late period sources.
>
> > red-orange/red-brown - red saunders. It's also called "red
> > sandalwood" but it isn't even related to real sandalwood and doesn't
> > have that wonderful scent
> >
> > yellow - saffron
> > (turmeric in Asia - but was turmeric in Europe in SCA period?)
> >
> > green - greens pressed to make a green liquid which also adds flavor,
> > such are parsley and cilantro
> >
> > blue - certain berries
>
> tournesole and perhaps indigo, but I'm not certain of the latter
> >
> > Any others that are actually documented in period?
> >
> > As far as other foods i know about that color foods, but don't know
> > if they were used in period:
> >
> > black - squid ink, used in pasta, but i don't know if it is used for
> > anything else...
>
> Ink, I thought. Also various blood preparations are used to make
> foods black.
>
> > pink - beets
>
> "Pink is not period!!!" Sorry, I couldn't resist. People still
> make that noise...
>
> > a range of browns, yellows, and oranges - yellow onion skins
> >
> > I'm not looking for things that we can use now, but what they
> > actually used "back then".
>
> Adamantius
> --
> Phil & Susan Troy
>
> troy at asan.com
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