[Sca-cooks] Re: Indigo

[Elise Fleming]

Subject: Indigo (was Re: [Sca-cooks] Things to BUY at Pennsic
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.58.0406081222010.597 at rocky.itasca.net>
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Stefan saith:
 
> > Indigo and certain other natural dyes
 
Margaret wrote:
>OFC: there's at least one pottage in the Anglo/Norman corpus that is
>specified to be indigo. As far as I have been able to find out, powdered
>unreduced indigo is inert and thus *in theory* could be used as food
>coloring. I'm still looking for a definitive answer on that, though.

There's a reference in _Curye on Inglysch_, Book V: Goud Kokery, number 15,
"To make ymages in suger".  Among the coloring agents for the boiled sugar
is this which I've put into modern type:  And if ye will make it grene,
take ynde wawdeas ii penyweyght, ii penyweyte of saffron, the water of the
gleyr of ii egges, and stampe all wele togeder and anoynte it wyth all." 
Presumably the blue mixed with the yellow saffron produced green.  It
continues saying that if one wants a lighter green, use more saffron.

Alys Katharine