The food colouring comes in different forms: powdered, liquid, paste or jelly colouring. It will be very useful in all types of preparations. Originally, we had natural food dyes, charcoal-based for black, chlorophyll-based for green, or saffron-based. Then other shades and textures were created...
Technical characteristics of food colours
Food colouring powder
.
The powdered food colouring is recommended for creations made with pulled sugar, puffed sugar, but also for macaroons, cakes or creams, directly incorporated into the preparation. The food colouring powder can also be used for savoury preparations such as sauces, toasts or petits fours...
Liquid food colouring
Liquid food colouring is used in the same way as powdered food colouring, but can also be mixed with syrups or spirits to make beautiful cocktails. A drop of liquid food colouring can also be used to colour frosting for the decoration of pastries, cupcakes, eclairs, etc.
Water soluble vs. fat soluble food colouring?
Be careful, some food colourings are water-soluble, others fat-soluble. It all depends on the preparation in which you are going to incorporate them. If it contains fat (chocolate, sugar, marzipan, butter...), you will need to use a fat-soluble food colouring, otherwise, you will need to opt for a water-soluble food colouring.
Food colour combinations
3 primary colours being red, yellow and blue, here is a little reminder of how to mix colours to obtain the "secondary" colours:
Red food colouring + yellow food colouring => Orange food colouring
Blue food colouring + yellow food colouring => Green food colouring
Blue food colouring + red food colouring => Purple food colouring
Finally, to obtain other shades...
Light green => Yellow (primary) + Green (secondary)
Blue-green => Green (secondary) + Cyan blue (primary)
Blue violet => Blue (primary) + Violet (secondary)
Red violet => Violet (secondary) + Red (primary)
Orange red => Red (primary) + Orange (secondary)
Orange yellow => Orange (secondary) + Yellow (primary)
Conditions for using food colouring
Simply sprinkled or sprayed with a gun or sprayer, applied with a brush, or diluted directly in a preparation, the food colourings let your imagination fly, to amaze your loved ones and to impress your guests!
Please note that food colouring has no taste. They will simply enhance the food visually but will not change the flavour. They can be mixed together to create new shades. They are very concentrated and a pinch of the knife is enough to colour your preparation, the average dosage being 0.5 g for 1 kg of preparation.
A water-dispersible/lipodispersible colourant is a colourant that is neither water nor fat soluble. It will mix but not totally, there will be a phase/deposit, that's why we use these terms.
Food colourings can also enhance the colour of food that may have "faded" a little during cooking. In any case, add it at a very low dose to start with, and then add more until you achieve the desired shade.
You should know that food colourings are rigorously controlled before and throughout their presence on the market, according to studies carried out in particular by the European Food Safety Authority - EFSA. It is therefore safe to eat them.
Le colorant est tres puissant, attention e ne pas en mettre trop, allez-y ar toutes petties touches jusqu'a arriver a l'intensite voulue !