Deep Red Coloring

Original Recipe

Take twenty grains of cochineal and fifteen grains of cream of tartar finely powdered; add to them a piece of alum the size of a cherry stone and boil them with a gill of soft water in an earthen vessel, slowly, for half an hour. Then strain it through muslin, and keep it tightly corked in a phial. If a little alcohol is added it will keep any length of time.

Ingredients

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  • 1 piece of alum the size of a cherry stone and boil them with a gill of soft water in an earthen vessel
  • 1 phial
  • 1 little alcohol is added it will keep any length of time

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receipt_long

Instructions

  1. 1

    Take twenty grains of cochineal and fifteen grains of cream of tartar finely powdered; add to them a piece of alum the size of a cherry stone and boil them with a gill of soft water in an earthen vessel, slowly, for half an hour.

  2. 2

    Then strain it through muslin, and keep it tightly corked in a phial.

  3. 3

    If a little alcohol is added it will keep any length of time.

Sources & Citations

Sources included so you can explore further.

Recipe by Mrs. F.L. Gillette from The White House Cook Book (1887)