Here’s an interesting addition to the food coloring discussion from reader Jim Chevallier: …in browsing your comments on colorants, I was reminded of a dismaying discovery I made when translating Taillevent’s medieval Viandier (as “How to Cook a Peacock” – surprisingly, one of my more popular tomes.) This was that the orchanet (alkanet) used to […]
READ ONWhew! That hurt. Nothing like a broken site to discourage readership. I think my numbers were down into the negatives over the weekend, if that’s possible. Thanks to all who wrote in from all corners of the globe to alert me to the fact that the site was in trouble. Fortunately, my host, whose upgrade […]
READ ONWith the controversy that sometimes surrounds food colorings, it’s easy to get lulled into the assumption that coloring food is a recent phenomenon. In fact it’s been practiced for millennia, especially among the Romans and Greeks who were renown for their manufacture of caramel color. Caramel color? Isn’t that what they put in soft drinks? […]
READ ONI told you earlier that I was feeling particularly “Kentucky” this weekend. The other big reason is that I was inducted into the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels on Saturday. But before you start thinking that I’d somehow earned this distinction (through, say, distinguished military service), you should be aware that the Honorable Order of […]
READ ONSo how did food colors come to be the most rigorously safety-tested ingredients in the world? Abuse, of course. Up to now I’ve written mostly about where safe colorings and dyes have come from. Unsafe colorings and dyes were once far more numerous, and far more widely used. Fraud perpetrated by food makers — especially […]
READ ONYes, you can buy those little squeeze tubes in the grocery store, however they contain some of the worst-tasting stuff you’ve ever put into your mouth. Really. Better, I think, to make one’s own. For home bakers, I simply suggest a thicker version of the powdered sugar-and-water icing below. It’s not much different, save for […]
READ ONI’m not a master colorist by any means, however I dabbled in water color painting long enough to know that if there’s a color you’re interested in, you buy it (or at least the closest thing to it). There are several good reasons for that. Expediency is one. Consistency is another, since you never know […]
READ ONI’ve received some very amusing messages from pastry chefs and bake shop staff the last few days. All of them, in one way or another, echo the sentiments of pastry chef Camille: Iced cookies…shudder. Iced cookies were the bane of my existence at every holiday from Halloween to Sorority Rush Week when I worked at […]
READ ONThough bright artificial colors are a critical ingredient in decorated, iced cookies, I almost hesitate to bring them up, because I know there are more than a few folks out there who experience acute anxiety around them. This anxiety frequently arises from outdated concerns about safety, though some people dislike them on purely aesthetic grounds. […]
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