Blood Effect That Is Washable and Eatable for Halloween and Day of the Dead

Intro: Blood Effect That Is Washable and Eatable for Halloween and Day of the Dead

I work at the San Francisco Opera and we use a blood on stage filmed in high definition that looks great and is eatable and washable too.
 This recipe is all made from all store bought items.

My good friend Jim Holden is the "Blood PathoJim" we call him, and is shown mixing a batch up in our Prop Shop.
Browse the shows photo gallery and find the blood!
http://sfopera.com/o/288.asp

STEP 1: Ingredient List

Corn Syrup---- (2L) 8.5 cups
Chocolate Syrup---- (500mL) 2 cups, 2 tbsp
Water---- (500mL) 2 cups +/-
Corn Starch---- 2 tbsp (heaping)
Coffee Mate---- (yes!) 3 tbsp (heaping) This makes it Washable....
Red Food Coloring---- (15mL)  3 tsb
Yellow Food Coloring---- (3mL) little more than 1/2 tsp.

STEP 2: Mix Ingredients in Pan

Pour the Corn and Chocolate syrups into the pan and start to heat on medium setting.

STEP 3: Corn Starch and Coffee Mate

Use one cup of cold water to dissolve corn starch.
One cup of hot water to dissolve Coffee Mate.
 Add to pot.

Start bringing  pot to a slow boil.

STEP 4:

Add food Coloring and bring to a boil.
 I found that I could add the coloring to the warm Coffee Mate/water cup step was fine too.

STEP 5: Stir All Ingredients and Bring to Rolling Boil.

I use a big pot and bring to a boil stirring and mixing all ingredients to a Lovely Bloody mess!

 You do not have to cook very much, but the high heat dose seem to combine the ingredients better than no heat.

This makes about 3 Liters or just over 3 quarts of Blood, You may 1/2 all ingredients for a smaller batch.

 The Coffee Mate is what makes this washable and every performance of Salome we mop down the white stage and launder all blood soaked costumes to be used again and again....

Did I tell you that we served it on Ice Cream opening day!

Comments

[alqutis]

This stuff is the absolute best!

I have used it in two theatrical productions in New Orleans now, and it is so tough to screw up!

Thanks a whole lot for posting this. Made life so easy!

[kentkb]

Thanks alqutis, we found it was swell to work with.

[NikiDances]

How does it launder. What did you use?

[kentkb]

Just normal washing.

[thomasjcoppola]

does anyone know how long the blood keeps? Does it mold or spoiled? Obviously if it's made the same day it should be fine, but wondering how much can be made at one time and then spread out throughout a performance run.

[kentkb]

We used a gallon or so every week. So I know it will store that long.

[Roketto]

Is there a way to half, or even quarter this recipe to make less blood? I only need enough for a zombie makeup effect, & I used this last year. It was WONDERFUL...but I had a big Ziploc bag of blood in my freezer that for some reason, nobody would eat (ha ha).

So, at the risk of trying to cut it down myself, I figured I'd ask the creator how to do less quantity, but keep the same quality.

[kentkb]

I will talk to my friend ( seen in photos ) but, it is a recipe, and should scale smaller with out any problem.

Cheers!

Good luck with your Zombie effect!
kkb

[Roketto]

Man, thanks. I'm awful for procrastinating like this, but I had to hunt to find this recipe again (I for some reason didn't put it in my Favorites last year), & I need it by tonight, for a Zombie Run at the college I work at tomorrow. Essentially, we're playing a version of capture-the-flag, but with zombies, so all the instructors & volunteers get to chase the college kids around & steal their flags.

Now that I'm done grading midterms, I'll spend the afternoon doing a makeup test, & experimenting with halving your recipe. You think the average cooking time'll be the same?

If I succeed, I'll post my measurements here for everyone else's convenience.

[kentkb]

The cooking is really just to get everything to meld together.... That being said, I think the boil doe not have to be very long at all.

Enjoy!