During our weekly shopping trips, I try to encourage Liz to choose something in the produce eisles that she sees that looks interesting. It gets me to learn how to cook something new and we always come away with a different experience. Well, she choose purple cabbage this week. I thought that I could cook up a Russian dish that we like called (forgive my spelling) Galupsie. It's basically a cabbage roll. I stuck the cabbage in the pot and boiled it like usual, and then found to my horror that it had changed to a weird blue color. I thought, oh no! I ruined another dinner! I asked Josh about it and after a quick Wikipedia search he found that it's actually a normal thing. When purple cabbage is exposed to alkaline, or basic solutions, it will turn a white or blue color. When it is exposed to acid, it will turn red. A homemade litmus test! This is thanks to a chemical called anthocyanin. It's a really cool chemical that's also good for you. Well, it was a good dinner and I learned something new.
This could also be used as a science fair project with household acids and bases to turn the lettuce color. (i.e. vinegar)
Here's some pictures, but it's kind of hard to tell.
