# Adding dark color to sauces.



## pcieluck (Dec 9, 2010)

Sometimes when I make beef stew, the resulting sauce/stock is kind of greyish.  I've tried toasting onions longer, darking roux longer. It still sometimes doesn't come out as dark as I'd like.  Any tricks to quickly add more dark caramel color to sauce that's already finished?


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

Dark soy sauce. A little goes a long way in color. Not the standard soy sauce.


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## pcieluck (Dec 9, 2010)

What I really end up with is the color you see on top of german chocolate cake. Not terrible but I want darker. I worry that soy sauce would effect the taste too much.


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

I understand your concern. Dark soy packs a lot of color. That's one of it's uses in Chinese cooking is for dark color.

You won't be adding enough to really shift the flavor, or at least you shouldn't be adding that much.


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## chefbillyb (Feb 8, 2009)

How about Caramel color for Caramel color, Black Soy is made with Molasses, like the others said, a little goes a long way....


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## petemccracken (Sep 18, 2008)

Not that I'd ever use it /img/vbsmilies/smilies/wink.gif but some say /img/vbsmilies/smilies/laser.gif"Kitchen Bouquet" all the way!


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

Years ago was called blackjack(caramel but real dark but not bitter)  Gravy master, kitchen bouguet . Dredge meat in flour and saute till real brown use drippings in roux. Brown flour dry first in oven. there are a lot of ways.


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## pcieluck (Dec 9, 2010)

In relation to using dark soy, what about oyster sauce? Also very dark and its viscosity won't make any sauce runny.


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## chefbuba (Feb 17, 2010)

Oyster sauce would make it taste..... well, "oysterty".... unless that's what you were going for. Quite a bit of sodium also.


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

There's a relatively tasteless "caramel coloring" made for the purpose, and available from commercial and semi-commercial sources like Smart and Final.  McCormack makes one as well. 

You might want to use a more concentrated and darker stock.  Darken the stock by painting the bones with tomato paste before roasting, then roasting them dark; just plain roast them dark; and/or brown your tomato paste well before adding water. 

Other darkening additions frequently used in stews and meat sauces are beef base (Better than Bullion for instance) and Worcestershire sauce.  Molasses also carries a lot of color but may not be appropriate for your purposes.  I'd keep oyster sauce far away from a beef stew or sauce, but you may think differently.

BDL


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## durangojo (Jul 30, 2007)

i'm not above using kitchen bouquet, in fact i do use it when i want to acheive a nice dark color in a sauce...i use it like an extract, meaning it doesn't take much....it claims to do one thing and it does it well....anything else you add will change your flavor...no to molasses, no to oyster sauce and definately no to soy or tamari( imo)..... if you are against using KB for whatever reason, i'm sure your health food store carries something similar....of course, starting with a good beef base or stock is a no brainer...it does makes a difference....l you could use MAGGi as well.....

joey


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

86 the soy or oyster sauce or anything of a chinese nature. You said beef stew  not stir fry.(adds totaly different flavors)    

As BDL says and I forgot to add  paint bones with tomato puree.


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## pcieluck (Dec 9, 2010)

What about maybe using more red wine and letting it reduce further. will that make the end result darker as well?


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## thetincook (Jun 14, 2002)

Onion brulee? I use em for brown stock.


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## bishop (Feb 27, 2008)

Are you coating the stew meat in flour and then searing off in batches to a dark brown color? It drives me nuts when I see cooks crowding the pan and basically boiling the stew meat. Getting that good sear not only develops the flavor of your sauce/gravy, it also deepens the color. The pan fond that is left behind during this step will turn your sauce dark brown as soon as you deglaze with either wine of stock.


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

Bishop said:


> Are you coating the stew meat in flour and then searing off in batches to a dark brown color? It drives me nuts when I see cooks crowding the pan and basically boiling the stew meat. Getting that good sear not only develops the flavor of your sauce/gravy, it also deepens the color. The pan fond that is left behind during this step will turn your sauce dark brown as soon as you deglaze with either wine of stock.


Absolutely!

You don't need to color at all when searing the meat properly ànd using the residu stuck on the bottom of the pan. That will indeed result in a much darker stew. Frying onions into a darker caramelized stadium will add just a minium of color, but, above all, may turn the preparation completely bitter!

I do have to add that I always "flour" the meat after searing it in batches like Bishop explains.


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

It will also change flavors.


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

Chris.!  That is exactly what he is doing  Crowding or trying to get finished to fast.

Prieluck!   If you add more wine for color you are adding more wine flavor, the finished  dish may not require that.


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## luc_h (Jun 6, 2007)

phatch said:


> I understand your concern. Dark soy packs a lot of color. That's one of it's uses in Chinese cooking is for dark color.
> 
> You won't be adding enough to really shift the flavor, or at least you shouldn't be adding that much.


phatch is right, Dark soy goes along way! if you look at the ingredients, caramel colour is often in the top ingredients. Caramel colour is in fact chemically caramelized sugar. If you can get your hands on the caramel colour, that will work without adding any flavour. It is an industrial food chemical.

This company makes it:http://www.sethness.com/?gclid=COa1neeLwaoCFcPBKgodmAxO7g

If you read ingredients you will see that this stuff is everywhere: cola, fondants, candies, icetea, etc...

Luc H.


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## cacioepepe (Apr 3, 2011)

Why is everyone talking about dark soy?! If you have a properly made stock, caramelize your meat and veg for the stew properly, and reduce the cooking liquid/wine far enough there should be no problem to achieving the proper color to a stew.  Caramel color?! Really?!


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## pcieluck (Dec 9, 2010)

cacioEpepe said:


> Why is everyone talking about dark soy?! If you have a properly made stock, caramelize your meat and veg for the stew properly, and reduce the cooking liquid/wine far enough there should be no problem to achieving the proper color to a stew. Caramel color?! Really?!


My meat is one shade above black. My CHICKEN stock comes out darker than most people's BEEF stock. Onions have been caramelized for at least a half hour. I use cast iron, to caramelize, and tends to add much more color to a deglaze than my steel cookware. I'm using bourgundy wine, reduced by half. But still, half the time it looks kind of like... the topping on german chocolate cake. Said like that, it sounds fine, I know. But trust me, on a plate it's not pretty.

By chance... too much flour in the beginning? I don't overcrowd my pan, but I don't coat the meat in flower either. I tend to add that as i'm caramelizing onions, towards the end.


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## chefjw (Aug 11, 2011)

The sauce pigment in stew is a result of browning. I speaking of the protein you are using make sure you brown it really well. Also in the commercial kitchens we have the luxury of stocks, so quite often we have started out with a beef stock that is quite dark. Also what cut of meat are you using. Some protein cuts can produce a murky milky stock if not dealt with properly.


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## chefjw (Aug 11, 2011)

And that was the suggestion I forgot. Yes carmel coloring or kitchen bouquet ect. Won't hurt the flavor. Plus no sodium as in additives.


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## durangojo (Jul 30, 2007)

pcieluck,

 if you look at the ingredients on a kitchen bouquet bottle it reads..caramel, vegetable base, vegetables(lists them), and spices...miniscule % of sodium benzoate, which may or may not bother you...it works, that's all i know...and it's easy!

joey


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

I have been in some of the classiest places in NY and Europe and in 98% of the places you will see a bottle of blackjack(homr made) or Kitchen Bouquet or even one called Gravy Master in the storeroom. Not used maybe but there just in case.


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## pcieluck (Dec 9, 2010)

I have noticed that a stew of chuck come out a lighter shade than short-ribs. reason for this? What may I expect of stewing brisket?


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

Stew could contsin veges that lighten color  ie potatoes. Stew usually done on top of stove sometime finished in oven . Shortribs done almost all in oven. Marrow in the bone in shortrib tends to darken.


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

pcieluck said:


> My meat is one shade above black. My CHICKEN stock comes out darker than most people's BEEF stock. Onions have been caramelized for at least a half hour. I use cast iron, to caramelize, and tends to add much more color to a deglaze than my steel cookware. I'm using bourgundy wine, reduced by half. But still, half the time it looks kind of like... the topping on german chocolate cake. Said like that, it sounds fine, I know. But trust me, on a plate it's not pretty.
> 
> By chance... too much flour in the beginning? I don't overcrowd my pan, but I don't coat the meat in flower either. I tend to add that as i'm caramelizing onions, towards the end.


Seems like you're doing the right things. Maybe, just maybe you could be too much focused on obtaining the most dark color every time. Well, that is not realistic at all.

Are you really looking for a normal appetizing "natural" color? Normally a stew can have any shade of color between a light milk chocolate and fondant chocolate color. I would guess in more than 90% of the cases it will be more milk chocolate color... and that's perfect!

I don't know what you mean by "german topping" even as a neighbouring country with Germany.

Also, I read you use burgundy wine. Do you realize that most red burgundy wines are made with pinot noir grapes, producing one of the lightest colored wines around? It's even used in.. champagnes! I would go for darker and much cheaper wine types made with syrah, grenache, merlot, tempranillo...

If you want a really dark color, try using Guiness beer instead of wine! I'm not mentioning our own fantastic Belgian beers as you can observe, I'm too biased. But any Belgian dark abbaye/trappist beer would improve color and taste dramatically compared to wine. Damn, I did it again, sorry.


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## pcieluck (Dec 9, 2010)

ChrisBelgium said:


> I don't know what you mean by "german topping" even as a neighbouring country with Germany.


German chocolate cake isn't German at all, just created by a man who went by the last name "German."

The color in this picture is perfect, in my opinion. I know it's thanks in part to tomato paste, and I went half pinot noire and half cream sherry as my alcohol choice on that one. My choice of meat was also the short-rib, which seems to give me better results too. But the short-ribs I have available at my grocery store are poor quality. Way too small, too expensive, and fatty even after 5 hours of braising. And as someone mentioned above, there's no potatoes in that one. Could be, turns out, my biggest culprit.


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## babytiger (Oct 14, 2010)

Dark soy, sweet soy, cooking caramel and vegemite. Other than the cooking caramel, the others also give stews another layer of flavor.


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

Looks like a very tasty dish Pcieluck. I love carrots in beefstew. Your sauce has a very nice color, a hint of tomatopaste is indeed suspected. Your meat seems relatively dark compared to the sauce, but no complaint at all, looks perfectly tasty.


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## pcieluck (Dec 9, 2010)

Sorry to reopen a dusty old thread here, but since this discussion i've happened upon a beef stew recipe and a chili recipe which have unsweetened cocoa powder for color and richness. Any thoughts on this or how that would be done properly? I understand some cocoa powder is pure cocoa and some do have starch added.


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