How to make food coloring at home

Everyone knows that artificial colors, which are used in cooking, are very dangerous for health. Therefore, many are trying to use natural products to get color. Make it easy, and naturalness and food safety will be guaranteed.

Why do we need dyes

Dyes are divided into natural and synthetic. Natural dyes are products of plant origin, and their composition does not include chemicals. Synthetic dyes can be gel, liquid and dry. Food dyes are used in the food industry to make ordinary products a work of art and increase sales. They do not have any taste properties, and therefore do not affect the taste of products.

Substances produced by the chemical process are harmful to the body.Therefore, many people prefer to prepare dyes themselves from more natural products. Thus, it is possible not only to make the dish colorful, but absolutely safe. And for this you do not need to buy expensive components, as ordinary products will do.

Harm of artificial colors

The chemical industry produces a huge amount of substances that are then used to make products more attractive. But not everyone knows what exactly is hidden behind synthetic dyes. For example, even the composition of most of these mixtures can not be determined without long-term laboratory studies.

And manufacturers do not always adhere to standards and easily violate the number of hazardous components contained in dyes. Moreover, the harm of such substances is not only possible allergies. Some preservatives can cause oxygen starvation, negatively affect the nervous system and provoke the development of tumors. Therefore, it is important to limit the use of such products, and for homemade dishes use only natural dyes.

How to make a dye at home

To do this, just open the fridge and choose any vegetable or fruit that is suitable in color. You can take for this purpose juices, jams, greens and even seasonings. As for the storage of natural dye, it will be valid for only a few days without sugar. But with the addition of sugar, the dye will quietly last 10-14 days. The main thing is to put it in a glass container with a tight lid and not to leave it warm.

Red color
In order to give the dish such shade, you can use the juices of raspberry, strawberry, cherry or cranberry. Ordinary red wine and various jams are also suitable. It is desirable to add several components, then the red color will be more saturated. Often housewives use ordinary beets for cooking with a red tinge. And for good reason, because this vegetable is considered the most powerful natural dye.

Getting pigment from the beets is a snap. To do this, 1-2 fruits need to be washed, cleaned and grated. Then the beets are poured with water and boiled for about an hour on low heat. Also in the broth, you must add 0.5 tsp. citric acid, otherwise the dye will discolor from oxidation by air.As soon as the beets have cooled, it must be drained and used to color the dish.

Orange color
The easiest way to get an orange natural dye is to use carrots. It also needs to be cleaned and grated. Then the vegetable is laid out in the pan and poured with butter, pre-melted in a water bath. The ratio of carrots and butter should be 1: 1. Next, the mixture should be on the stove for about 5 minutes. The oil should acquire the desired shade, after which you should squeeze the cooled carrots through gauze.

Yellow
To give the dish a yellow color, lemon is most often used. His zest is rubbed on a very fine grater, and then squeezed and filter the juice. You can also get a nice yellow tint by mixing a little bit of turmeric in warm water.

Green color
For saturated green color, you can use fresh spinach. It must be rubbed through a sieve or grind using a meat grinder. The resulting mixture must be boiled for half an hour, and then strain through cheesecloth.

Purple and blue colors
You can get them using eggplant peel, dark grapes or blueberries.Purple cabbage, which you just need to cut and boil, is also perfect. If you want to get brown, the easiest way to achieve this shade with sugar. It must be mixed with water in a ratio of 5: 1 and placed in a frying pan.

It is necessary to fry sugar on a small fire and at the same time constantly stir it. After the mixture acquires the necessary shade, water is added to it and filtered. In addition to burnt sugar, you can use chocolate, coffee or cocoa to get brown.

Black color
Often, black is used to decorate dishes. To achieve this shade is not as difficult as it seems at first glance. For sweet dishes, for example, for a cake, you need to use cocoa powder. But not ordinary, but a special sort of powder called the Dutch Ultra. It contains more chocolate and in itself is much darker than traditional cocoa. And for salty dishes, squid ink is ideal.

Beige color
In order to get a beige color, many cooks recommend adding a little tomato paste to the cream, for example. The color depends on the amount of paste, so when adding a large amount of tomato cream will not be beige, but closer to orange. The tomato paste does not affect the taste of the dessert.

If several natural dyes, previously prepared, are stored in the refrigerator, then there is no need to look for ingredients to get a new color. You can mix existing colors and get the one you need. For example, for aquamarine, you can mix blue and green, and to get a blue dye, it is enough to mix green with red. In order to get a black tint, you need green, blue and red dyes. A beautiful pistachio color is obtained if you mix yellow and blue.

When to add dyes

Very much depends on when exactly the coloring matter will be added to the dish. Therefore it is important to know:

1. You should not add dyes to fresh dough. It is better to soak the dye baking. But this rule does not apply to meringues.
2. If the dough is necessary not for baking, but for noodles or ravioli, then dyes, on the contrary, are recommended to be added immediately during kneading. After all, then paint the finished product does not work.
3. In the cream, which is used for decoration, the dye should also be added at the last moment. Otherwise, extra components may adversely affect the stability of the cream during whipping.
4. Do not rush and add as much dye as possible. Enough 1-2 drops to see what the color will turn out. Yes, and make it richer then much easier.

These are just the basic ways to get different colors. If you approach the case with fantasy, you can get unusual shades. They will decorate any dish and will surprise guests very much. And safe components will not bring harm to health, therefore children can eat all goodies.

Video: do-it-yourself natural food colorings