It’s just another ordinary day in the kitchen. You’re wielding your culinary magic–chopping onions, crushing garlic, measuring dry white wine for your favorite crockpot cassoulet. You wipe your hands clean of the good work and check back an hour or two later.
Something is wrong. Very wrong. The garlic, once a creamy white color, has transmogrified into a terrifying teal green! Why does your French cassoulet suddenly look frighteningly like the Statue of Liberty? Was it rotten? Is the dish ruined?
Not to worry, my fellow foodies! Further proving that cooking is chemistry, sulfur compounds released from crushed garlic react with natural amino acids, creating the blue-green tint. When you increase the acidity of the food with wine or vinegar, the reaction really gets going, and that turquoise color shines through.
Your garlic’s color palette might look like fashion from the 90s, but not because it’s that old. Everything is perfectly safe to eat, so don’t fret and bon appetit!
Ron S. Doyle is a freelance writer in Denver, CO. Special thanks to Twitter’s @foodimentary for the fact-finding and thanks to What’s Cooking America for the exceedingly technical explanation!
Who knew? I thought I was pretty food science savvy, but this one is news to me. Cool.
Anyway, I’d eat cassoulet any day, no matter what color it was!