Annatto (Bixa orellana L.)

Annatto shrub with flowers and fruits www.botany.hawaii.edu   © Gerald Carr

Annatto is native to South America, and is currently mostly in use as a flavouring and food colouring in Central and Northern South America. In the Caribbean, the seeds are usually fried in (animal or vegetable) fat; after discarding the seeds, the then golden-yellow fat is used to fry vegetables or meat. By this procedure, a golden yellow to golden brown colour is achieved. Mexican cooks often use a paste (achiote) of annatto seeds with some preservatives (acetic acid) that dissolves completely in hot fat; it is easy to use and can also be added to marinades and sauces to improve the colour. Similar use is found in South America, namely, Perú and Bolivia.

The original Aztec drinking chocolate (see also vanilla) is reported to have contained annatto seeds as well; given their high fat content, this is entirely plausible, even more since red colour bears associations with blood and thus had religious connotations in Aztec society. Using annatto to deepen the colour of chocolate was common in Europe until the 17.th century; today, the spice has little if any significance and is used occasionally to give butter and cheese a deep yellow colour (see also blue fenugreek).

In South México (Yucatán), meat is often marinated with a spice mixture called recado that derives its vibrantly yellow colour from liberal addition of annatto. The annatto seeds may be used ground (often after soaking in hot water to soften them) or in form of annatto oil. Recado is made from annatto, dried oregano, ground spices (black pepper, allspice and cumin), garlic and fiery Yucatecan chiles. They key flavour is the juice of bitter oranges (also known as sour oranges or Seville oranges) which adds a distinct, acidic fruitiness.

Recado-marinated meats are wrapped in banana leaves and baked in a hot stone pit. Baking in a hot oven, pan-frying or grilling is also possible. The technique can be applied to poultry and fish, but is most popular for pork, especially suckling pig. Food prepared this way is generally referred to as pibil.

By Spanish influence, annatto also has made its way to South East Asia. On the Philippines, the seeds are often ground to a powder and added to soups and stews; meat is often marinated with annatto-coloured seasonings. The colour obtained hereby is brownish-yellow, less vibrant than the colour resulting from usage of annatto oil in the Caribbean.

Besides Philippino cooking, the cuisines of South East Asia make little use of annatto seeds. In Vietnam, batters are often prepared with annatto oil to achieve a more attractive colour; annatto oil is also common for improving the colour of coconut-based curries (ca ri [cà ri], see rice paddy herb). Lastly, there are Vietnamese varieties of Beijing duck (ga quay mat ong [gà quay mật ong], can be prepared with either duck or chicken) that use annatto oil to colour the bird's skin; Chinese cooks produce a similar colour by treating the duck with malt solutions, which caramelizes during baking. In China, annatto seeds are occasionally contained in seasonings or marinades for grilled or fried meats (predominantly pork), resulting in a bright orange meat surface.

Although some books state that annatto imparts its specific flavour to the food stained therewith, I cannot myself agree with this opinion. It is true that pure annatto seeds have same very faint fragrance, but this aroma is not transmitted to the food.

Ripe annatto fruits pharm1.pharmazie.uni-greifswald.de

Orange or yellow hues can also be obtained with several other plants. A chemically similar dye is contained in saffron, and the colour may become quite similar; yet saffron with its incomparable fragrance is much more than just a colouring agent. Safflower, in contrast, does not have any taste at all and can, therefore, be used whenever colour is desired but no aroma wanted; but its staining capability is low. Lastly, turmeric has a strong, earthy aroma and stains food bright yellow.

Both turmeric and saffron can even be used to dye textiles; both are, however, not lightproof (and saffron is very expensive, though this usage is mentioned in the Bible; see pomegranate).

Leaves can also be used to colour food, but, in general, they will give only a modestly green colour (see pandanus leaves as an example). In the wild, leaf colours other than green are rare, but gardeners have succeeded in breeding cultivars with red or otherwise coloured leaves from many herbs and other plants (e.g., basil, sage or, most spectacularly, chameleon plant). In Japan, a purple-leaved variety of perilla is used to colour pickled ginger.

The green leaf pigment chlorophyll is also responsible for the greenish colour of some vegetable oils, namely olive oil and pumpkin seed oil. Although the former is usually too pale, the latter can be used to give both flavour and colour to a variety of mostly cold foods.

There are no easy ways to achieve other colours with spices; several vegetables, however, fortunately can fill this hole. Spinach is common for a bright green (because it is more colourful than most other leaves), tomatoes for red, carrots for orange and aubergines for purple. Italian cooks sometimes use the dark “ink” of squids to give their noodles (pasta) or rice dishes (risotto) an exotic black colour. Another, very unusual colouring agent is the dried cochenille bug, which gives a bright and appealing pink (appalling though the culinary use of an insect may seem). For those loathing beetles, the red beet is a viable and efficient alternative.

Blue is the colour most difficult to achieve by natural dyes; people have tried their luck with several flowers (e.g., borage), but apart from being only seasonally available, none has proved sufficient colouring capability. The best results are obtained with a plant from South East Asia called butterfly pea (Clitoria ternatea, Fabaceae), whose deep blue coloured flowers have been used to colour desserts, particularly in Thailand; but in our days, synthetic food dyes have become much more popular.