[Sca-cooks] edible gold leaf

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Thebard:
>Knew I'd forget something, I also know that in some stores that 
>cater to anyone for India you can sometimes find edible silver leaf 
>under the name of vark, if I remember right.  So it might be 
>something to check out as well.
>
>James

Vark comes in gold or silver; both are edible. While they can be used 
for a variety of decorative purposes, their primary purpose is for 
wrapping "pills" made of betel nut and various spices and flavorings.

Silver vark is expensive, but it goes a long way; I think I got about 
a dozen sheets of approximately 4x6 inches for maybe $30. I forget 
how much the price for gold was, but it was too much for me at that 
time. YMMV.

I prefer the powder myself, only because I don't have the patience or 
the steadiness of hand required to work the leaf really well, and if 
you do a bad job with silver vark it just looks pretty much like 
aluminum foil.

The edible gold powder, though, works rather well when mixed with 
sugar and sprinkled on a hot pastry (or other dry surface), and 
placed in the oven just enough to melt...

Adamantius