Keeping Red Foods Red
Smart Solutions : Episode SSL-565 -- More Projects »
Food expert Shirley Corriher demonstrates techniques for keeping red foods made for a special Valentine's Day meal from fading, turning yellow or even turning blue. She also recommends foods that hold their red color well throughout the cooking process.
- Sautéing red cabbage will eventually turn it blue (figure A). This can be avoided by adding a small amount of vinegar and lemon juice. These two liquids will maintain the cabbage's acidity.
When adding grapes to a recipe (figure B), especially a sauce, add them at the last minute to keep the dark red color intact. Cooking grapes will wash the color out and there is no remedy for bringing the color back.
Walnuts baked in bread can add a soft blue color, which is lovely. But add some chopped walnuts (figure C) to snow-white fish fillets and the result is blue drool running off the fish. To remedy this, roast the walnuts in a 350-degree oven for 10 minutes to stabilize them enough so that they don't change color.Cherries have the tendency to turn dark blue in muffins. Two simple solutions to keep the batter acidic, and therefore the cherries red, is to substitute buttermilk for milk and baking soda for baking powder when called for in recipes.For a dash of red that isn't going anywhere, always go with red peppers, which will stay red when cooked.When serving beets, keep the beet slices in oil instead of water. The oil will allow the beets to keep their color longer than water, which will wash them out.
Resources Cookwise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Cooking
by Shirley Corriher (ISBN: 0688102298)
OUT OF BUSINESS--William Morrow & Company, 1997
Order this title from Amazon.com.
This very different cookbook helps readers to spot bad recipes, improve recipes and create some of their own.
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