How to Measure the Color of Food
Would you buy a raw brown steak? What about a blue apple? Green coconut flakes? Or a grey orange? Probably not. If the color of food isn’t ‘right’ consumers won’t buy it anymore, even if it is perfectly safe and…
Tag color
What would food be like without color? Pretty bland for sure. Also, it would be very hard to determine whether food is good or has gone bad, whether it’s ripe or whether it’s sour or sweet. We use color a lot to make judgment calls on food.
Color is also full of chemistry, there are a lot of different molecules and phenomena that play a role in giving a product color.
Browse through our archives to learn more about color in food!
How Turmeric Gets its Color (& How to Make it Turn Red!)
The ‘secret’ behind that yellow dal, yellow rice, or beautifully colored curry? A decent chance that it’s turmeric. A mere teaspoon can help color a sauce or dish and it’s not just used in savory dishes. In some countries it…
The Science of Rhubarb (+ Rhubarb Ice Cream Recipe)
The other day, having some rhubarb left and not wanting to make a rhubarb pie, cake or crumble (>90% of rhubarb recipes online seem to be for one of those!), I decided to try a rhubarb ice cream. I had…
Why Shrimp Change Color and Shape During Cooking
There is a very easy way to distinguish a fresh uncooked shrimp from a cooked one: its colour. If you’ve ever cooked shrimp before, you will have noticed this colour transformation. The shrimp will convert from a blue, translucent colour…
Comparing 5 ways to prepare broccoli – Broccoli science
Kale leaves shrink when they’re cooked, eggplants turn into a delicious mush and pumpkins can be transformed into a rich puree. Broccoli on the other hand doesn’t change size at all when cooked. It will still be a stem with…
Why a Mirror Glaze Is so Shiny (And How to Make It)
In what feels like decades ago in social media lifetimes, mirror glazes were quite the hype in 2016. Beautifully shiny and colorful glazed cakes were everywhere. Whether they were space or galaxy-themed, simply stylish, or brightly colored, they looked amazing…
Potato Science – Why Some Potato Fries Brown and Others Don’t
If you’ve ever made any potato dish you might have had both great successes and failures with the exact same recipe. In some cases the fries just turn out perfect, in other cases they brown way too quick and burn.…
The Science of Colours in Fruits and Vegetables
Have you ever noticed how fruits and vegetables have a wide variety of colours? The spectrum goes from orange to purple to green to bright red. It’s amazing how nature has developed all these bright and beautiful colours in order…
Guide on Red Food Colouring – Artifical vs Natural Colours
Whoever decided to make red velvet cookies with dark cocoa powder must have had some strong bright red coloring. Coloring a dark brown recipe to become red is a lot harder than coloring a simple whitish batter or cookie dough. Real…
How Red Cabbage Changes Color – The Science of Blue, Pink and pH
A while back I prepared a red cabbage salad for a meal later that day. I added all the ingredients and ended with a sprinkle of lime juice over the top. I must not have mix the salad well, because…
Purple carrot cake – Baking with purple carrots
Carrots are orange, aren’t they? No, not necessarily! Purple and yellow carrots are a relatively new variation of carrots in our supermarket (at least in my perception, until I found out it’s actually the purple ones that were there before…
The Science of Red Velvet (+ Cookie Recipe)
Colour is so important in food. A colour can make or break a food (or drink for that matter). But it also gives you a cue as to what flavours to expect. Research has shown repeatedly that the colour of…