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Red Beet Roots
Brazil, Pernambuco, and Logwood Are not considered very good for coloring wine, as the color of each is liable to be precipitated by any acidity that may be in the wine. To prepare either of the above woods, take 2 lbs. of the wood and boil it in 1 gal. water; when cool add ½ gal. spirit, 95 per cent. To brighten up the color add a little alum, or tartaric acid.
Caramel or Sugar Coloring.
This coloring is described under the head of brandy coloring, and may be found by referring to the index. Red Beet Roots.
Do not cut them on any account, and let them soak 10 minutes in cold water, then scour with a soft brush, and rinse in two waters. Tie them in a cloth, and set on the fire in a pan of cold water, and boil them gently until tender, then pour off the water, and set them to get cold in the cloth; you must then peel and, when wanted, slice them. If the least incision were made by knife or fork to try if tender, the color would escape into the water. Purple beet-roots are alone fit for this purpose, the light colored ones are useless.
PART X.
Two things are printed together here: a wine-colouring preparation made from dyewoods, and a straightforward method for boiling beets whole so they hold their colour. The beet method is sound and still worth following; the dyewood colouring is adulteration and should not be attempted.
- Why the dyewood part failsBrazilwood, Pernambuco and logwood are textile and ink dyes, not food colours. Logwood's colouring matter (haematoxylin/haematein) is not an approved food colouring in the US or the EU, and the purpose of the preparation is to give wine a colour it does not have.
- Alum and 95 per cent spiritAlum was added to "brighten" fugitive dyes and has no place in a drink; ingested in quantity it is an irritant, and it was among the adulterants the pure-food movement campaigned against. Spirit at 95 per cent is restricted or unavailable in many places, and serves here as a solvent for the dye.
- The hinge, for the beetsDo not pierce, cut or trim the beets at any point before they are cooked. Betanin is water-soluble and leaks from any wound, which is why the recipe forbids testing with a fork; judge doneness by pressing the whole beet with tongs or by time.
- Leave the tops and tails onTrim the leaves to an inch or two above the crown and leave the root tail intact. Scrubbing with a soft brush rather than peeling keeps the skin unbroken.
- "Boil gently until tender"Small beets of 2 in. take 30-40 minutes at a bare simmer, larger ones 50-70 minutes. Start them in cold water as directed so they heat evenly.
- Purple versus light colouredThe "purple" beet is the ordinary dark red beetroot; the "light coloured ones" are the pale fodder and sugar beets of the period, which carry almost no pigment. Golden and Chioggia beets sold today will not give this crimson colour either.
- The clothTying the beets in cloth and cooling them in it makes them easy to lift and handle; it does nothing chemically. Skins slip off with thumb pressure once the beets are cold.
- What to do with themCooked, cooled, peeled beets keep three or four days covered in the refrigerator and slice cleanly for salads. For colour in food, use the cooking-free flesh or juice rather than any of the dye preparations above; if you want to tint a drink, use a current food-grade colouring.
"Doctoring" was a recognised trade skill in the nineteenth-century wine and spirit business, and books of this kind sold formulas for it openly: colour, body, bouquet and age could all be simulated in the cellar. The author's objection to dyewoods is technical rather than moral -- their colour strikes and precipitates in an acid medium, which any wine is. Beet juice is cheap and reliably crimson, and the careful whole-boiling method is given here. Compilations like this one were among the exhibits that fed the agitation leading to the pure-food legislation of the early twentieth century.