It's completely ok to use bittern as the color of monascus powder. When the subject asks this question, he should think that monascus powder is an additive and unhealthy food, so you can worry too much.

Monascus powder is actually the powder after grinding Monascus rice. Monascus rice, commonly known as Redmi, is a brownish red or purplish red rice grain fermented by monascus with indica rice, japonica rice or glutinous rice as raw materials.

although monascus rice is not a spice, it is frequently used in brine (especially in red brine). When used in brine, it has strong coloring ability and is particularly difficult to change color. Grinding monascus rice into powder is to release color more quickly, which is not only beneficial to coloring, but also very economical (if monascus rice is used, the cooked monascus rice will be dumped).

Monascus rice is a traditional food in China. As early as Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica, it was recorded that Monascus rice is warm and sweet, and it is often used in traditional Chinese medicine, which has the effects of invigorating the spleen, promoting digestion, promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis. Since it can be used as traditional Chinese medicine, grinding Monascus rice into powder can be used as a color in brine.

No matter whether it is red rice or red rice powder, their colors are gorgeous. If only red rice is added to the brine for color matching, the color of the finished product is very unnatural. Therefore, in the current red brine, red rice is often used together with sugar color which is easy to be oxidized and blackened, and the two complement each other, so the color of the finished product is more natural. Share two usage methods of monascus powder

1. Dilution method with water: Take a proper amount of warm water, pour in monascus rice powder and mix well. After the ingredients are boiled in brine, they can be colored.

Note: ① Use warm water as much as possible to mix red yeast rice powder, which is easier to mix evenly.

② There is no specific ratio between red kojic rice and warm water, and the coloring ability of red kojic powder is very strong. It is suggested that novice friends can add more water to dilute it before using it.

③ When used in brine, you should be able to use a small number of times for coloring, and you must not pour it all at once.

④ When coloring braised pork, adjust the firepower to medium-high fire, which is helpful to the stability of coloring.

2. blanching coloring method of ingredients: this is my usual method, that is, when blanching ingredients, add red yeast powder water (not directly poured into the brine), which is not only easy to grasp the color, but also not easy to spoil the old soup (red yeast rice contains starch, which is easy to ferment in brine for a long time, and red yeast powder is no exception). The natural braised pork color can be obtained by blanching red koji powder and adding appropriate sugar color to the brine pot.

At present, there is also a kind of monascus red pigment sold in the market, which is a powdered natural edible pigment made from rice by monascus liquid fermentation process and unique extraction technology. It has lower cost, purer color and good stability, and interested friends can also try it.