The food-coloring topic

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Hi, I wasnt satisfied with the RED from the Cochineal...

 

http://i.imgur.com/uDQvfYt.jpg

Left to right CANNED beet juice, Canned Beet Juice AND Red Bell Pepper Juice, Canned Beet Juice AND Red Bell Pepper Juice AND Cochineal

 

The third one looks best to me.  What don't you like about it?  I appreciate you doing all this research.

[jmacnaughtan]

I don't use them very often, but when I do I can't taste any difference.

 

If you're using a whole bottle of colouring in a cake, you should probably switch to powdered colours.  They are a lot more powerful (don't wear white when you use them), so you'd never use more than about half a teaspoon.  Nobody's ever complained about the taste when I've used them in glazes.

[GlorifiedRice]

The third one looks best to me.  What don't you like about it?  I appreciate you doing all this research.

 

The plain Cochineal and plain Beet Juices were too FUSCIA-ISH. I wanted blood red

[huiray]

Turmeric functions as an acid-base indicator.  Under basic conditions it turns red.  Have you tried that?

 

Also, red cabbage juice will have a range of colors depending on the pH.

Edited October 21, 2014 by huiray (log)

[jmacnaughtan]

Turmeric functions as an acid-base indicator.  Under basic conditions it turns red.  Have you tried that?

 

Also, red cabbage juice will have a range of colors depending on the pH.

 

That's interesting, I had no idea turmeric worked as an indicator.  Unfortunately, it's harder to make basic food taste good and not soapy

[huiray]

That's interesting, I had no idea turmeric worked as an indicator.  Unfortunately, it's harder to make basic food taste good and not soapy

 

I don't know how common basic foodstuffs are.  However, commonly-found and commonly-eaten wonton noodles, all sorts of Chinese-style noodles, pulled noodles, etc are basic in character, as they are usually made with kan sui (NaHCO3/K2CO3 solution) added into the dough.**  (The packages of many of these as found in the USA would also list bicarbonate/carbonate in the list of ingredients (required by law) without any concealment.)  Take a look here (scroll down a bit), if one is inclined, for a visual of the effect of placing some turmeric-containing sauce/food onto wonton noodles that had already been cooked and drained.

 

I also note that in GlorifiedRice's post (this one) where she used red cabbage juice to dye one of those cup cakes the color she got (blue) indicates that the pH of the cupcake is somewhere around pH 8-9.  ;-) 

 

** Which is why the water used to cook wonton noodles in is useful for blanching green vegetables as they stay green when done in the now-slightly-alkaline water.

 

ETA:  I took some turmeric (maybe a half teaspoon's worth), made a somewhat dilute suspension of it in tap water, took some of that and added to it some baking soda dissolved in water --> darkened yellow but not yet red.  (pH of the bicarb should be around 8-ish; 0.1N NaHCO3 should be pH 8.4; the turmeric suspension + some bicarb should be merely pH>7)  I took some of the turmeric suspension and put in a couple dashes of the bottle of kan sui (see above) I have --> deep red w/ an orange tinge, and the suspension even clears up somewhat.  Filtered --> clear deep orange-tinged red solution, tastes of turmeric. :-) (curcumin - the primary dye in turmeric - is reported to have a red tinge at pH >7 (and to be "red" at various pH values in the mildly alkaline range))

p.s. I couldn't find my pH strips...

Edited October 23, 2014 by huiray (log)