Achiote

Achiote paste, sour orange, banana leaf, buried and cooked until it shreds.

Bitter Seville juice is the traditional solvent; acid pulls the colour out.

The pigment is fat-soluble. Bloomed in pig fat it becomes an oil and a dye.

Rubbed under the skin it stains the fat and browns before the meat does.

Nixtamalised corn takes colour without taking any flavour it did not want.

From the Caribbean to Manila this is the colour, though Mindanao gets there with turmeric.

Pounded into the paste, the allicin supplies the aroma the seed lacks.

Mexican oregano is loud; the seed brings dust and colour, not competition.

Musk over dust, and the two dried spices read as a single warm base.

Peppery seed oil colours the fry and gives bland starch a faint earthy bitterness.

It is why the cheese is orange, and the flavour contribution is close to nil.

Achiote stains the skin and tastes faintly of pepper and earth.

Colouring butter with it is a Caribbean habit; the peppery dust survives.

Grilled with achiote: acid strips the dust and leaves a colour you cannot fake.

Both Mesoamerican and dusty; the seed adds a pepper cocoa cannot supply.