Name: For Garnishing Twelfth Cakes
Ingredients: 1 ounce cochineal, finely ground; ½ cup water; ¼ ounce roche-alum; 2 ounces lump sugar

For Garnishing Twelfth Cakes

Ingredients

1 ounce cochineal, finely ground
½ cup water
¼ ounce roche-alum
2 ounces lump sugar

Directions

Combine the cochineal, water, roche‑alum, and lump sugar in a saucepan.
Boil the mixture for 20 minutes.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.
Store the liquid in a covered container for future use.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Cochineal: Provides the red colour that gives the garnish its intense hue.
Roche-alum: Acts as a mordant that helps bind and stabilise the cochineal colour.
Lump sugar: Adds sweetness and body to the liquid.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.