Red Sugar - An Experiment

Post date: Sep 24, 2017 3:15:58 AM

While researching a french recipe for cameline sauce, it reference "Red Sugar" as an ingredient. How did they make sugar red as its unprocessed color is brown, and refined it is white. In another recipe for a Rose pudding it called for alkanet (Alkanna tinctoria), which is a root in the borage family that is used to help color red wine modernly and food safe.

My first attempt at attaining a red sugar is to put chips of alkanet into a container of sugar and see how much colorant will be absorbed by the sugar having direct contact with the dry root. After 1 day there is a definite pink hue to the sugar as seen in the photo below.

Works Referenced:

"Alkanet (Medieval Garden)." Medieval Garden (Penn State University). College of Agricultural Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2017. <http://plantscience.psu.edu/medieval-garden/alkanet>.

"Alkanet." Herbs2000.com. Herbs2000.com, n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2017. <http://www.herbs2000.com/herbs/herbs_alkanet.htm>.

Gerard, John. "Alkanet." The Herball Or Generall Historie of Plantes. N.p.: John Norton, 1597. 656-57. The Herball Or Generall Historie of Plantes. Google Books, 19 Sept. 2014. Web. 24 Sept. 2017. <https://books.google.com/books?id=pgZfAAAAcAAJ>.

"Discoveries." Good Housekeeping Jan. 1906: 685-86. Good Housekeeping. C. W. Bryan & Company, 9 Feb. 2010. Web. 24 Sept. 2017. <https://books.google.com/books?id=4vUmAQAAIAAJ>. This article has many short observations or experiments that are contributed and shared with the magazine readership. Included in this article is the use of Alkanet obtained from a drug store in liquid form and sugar that is painted on to white frosted cakes using a paint brush.

Albala, Ken. Cooking in Europe, 1250-1650. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006. Print.

Stillé, Alfred, and John Michael Maisch. "ALKANNA - Alkanet Root." The National Dispensatory: Containing the Natural History, Chemistry, Pharmacy, Actions, and Uses of Medicines: Including Those Recognized in the Pharmacopœias of the United States, Great Britain, and Germany, with Numerous References to the French Codex. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. Philadelphia: Lea Bros., 1884. 152-53. The National Dispensatory. Google Books, 10 May 2011. Web. 24 Sept. 2017. <https://books.google.com/books?id=mYIhAQAAMAAJ>.