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

Or for Garnishing Twelfth Cakes

Ingredients

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

Directions

Boil cochineal, water, roche‑alum, and lump sugar for 20 minutes.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.
Preserve the liquid in a tightly covered container.

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 fix and brighten the cochineal colour.
Lump sugar: Adds sweetness and thickness, helping the liquid keep as a syrupy colouring.

“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.