Here’s Norm’s recipe:
Fake Blood recipe
This recipe is one I’ve used for years, and always had good results. Note that it depends on golden syrup, which might be hard to find in the US… Not sure. Never tried. But it seems to be the golden syrup that prevents it from staining… ** But see below for a note about food colourings.
1 cup golden syrup
2 tsp red food colouring
1 tsp yellow food colouring
a drop or two of dishwasing detergent (helps it flow)
A bit of chocolate syrup, like Hersheys.
The idea of the chocolate syrup is to dull the colour a bit, and make it more opaque. So it will vary a bit how much you put in. I would start with 1 tsp, and go from there.
On video, the reds tend to get very intense, so it’s worth dulling them down. But you can only really tell by holding an example in front of the camera and seeing how it looks on screen.
You can thin it with water, but go very carefully. A little water can thin it very quickly.
If you need a lot, then you can simply multiply up.
For larger amounts
1 tin golden syrup (1 kg)
2 bottles red food colouring (assuming the bottles are about
20ml)
1 bottle yellow food colouring
a little dishwashing detergent
And squirts of chocolate syrup to dull and opaque it.
Dulling the colour
Another way of dulling the colour which works well is to use instant coffee. Mix up a very concentrated solution of the coffee in water. Make sure it’s well dissolved and then add what you need to get it to the colour you want.
You may need to change the tone of the blood. You can do this by adding a LITTLE bit of blue food colouring. A drop or less is generally enough for the smaller recipe. Be careful not to add too much.
Practicalities
I would suggest rubber gloves when handling because it gets very sticky, very quickly. And of course containers. You may want a squeezy bottle to apply it easily…
So far, it’s proven extremely washable, however, I can’t guarantee that it won’t stain. It just hasn’t yet.
For some reason the colour fades in this mix over the course of a few months. So I advise only making what you are going to use in the next few weeks. You can always add more colour if it has faded… But more accurate to mix it correctly each time.
Note that this is basically very concentrated sugar. So it’s a good idea to let your victim, uh, subject know if they are going to have it in their mouths. Just in case they are diabetic or hypoglycemic. Holding it in your mouth should be fine, swallowing will give a sugar rush…
A Note about food colourings
For years I’ve been using the Hansells brand of food colouring. This is the one that I’ve found doesn’t stain. But now supermarkets sometimes stock other brands, which seem to have a bit less colour density, and now seems like it might stain a bit. So I recommend trying to find actual Hansells brand food colouring…