SC - Blancmanger - a Redaction

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Hi, all!

I'd been asked, after mentioning sugar in blancmanger, "Sugar? What
sugar?"

Here's a recipe for blancmanger calling for both sugar and salt: I can't
imagine it being thought of as especially bland.

>From Curye On Inglysch, Book IV, The Forme of Cury:

"38	Blank maunger. Take capouns and see6 hem, 6enne take hem vp; take
almaundes blaunched, grynde hem & alay hem vp with the same broth. Cast
the mylk in a pot. Waisshe rys and do 6erto, and lat it seeth; 6anne
take 6e brawn of 6e capouns, teere it small and do 6erto. Take white
grece, sugur and salt, and cast 6erinne. Lat it see6, 6enne messe it
forth and florissh it with aneys in confyt, red o6er whyt, and with
almaundes fryed in oyle, and serue it forth."

I would say the trick is to boil your capons (and I assume chickens
would work fairly well as a substitute) in as little water as possible,
to encourage a decently strong broth. If you cooked the chickens long
enough to get a decent stock out of it, the chicken meat would be almost
inedible, so to get as little broth, and as strong, as possible, is
probably the goal here.

VERY rough quantities, to me, anyway, would go something like this:

1/2 capon or 1 chicken breast
water to cover
1 1/2 cups blanched almonds, moistened with ice water and ground
1  cup rice
1 or 2 Tbs lard or chicken fat skimmed from the top of the broth
~1/2 tsp salt
~1 Tbs sugar
1/2 cup shredded blanched almonds
olive oil
1 Tbs anise seeds in confit, either homemade or cheat with candied
fennel seeds from the  
	Indian market, OR 2 Tbs of pomegranite kernels.

Place your poultry in a pot just big enough to hold it comfortably.
Cover with water, bring to a boil, skim, and simmer for 25-30 minutes,
or until tender. Allow it to cool in the broth or it will dry out! When
meat and broth are cold, drain the meat, pick off any skin and pick out
any bones, etc. Shred or grind the meat, ideally into little threads. I
suggest a fine julienne along the grain. Pack the meat into a container
just big enough to hold it, cover with just enough cold broth to keep it
moist, and reserve.

While the chicken cooks, saute your almonds in a bit of olive oil until
toasted golden brown. Drain and reserve.

Measure your broth: if you have more than three cups or so, simmer to
reduce the broth until you have around three cups. Pour boiling broth
over the almonds, let sit for at least ten minutes to infuse, then
blenderize and/or strain. Straining will reduce the volume of your milk,
so if it is a little less than three cups, you may need to top it off
with some water or any extra broth you may have, such as canned chicken
stock.

Put the almond milk in a large saucepan, and add the rice. Bring to a
boil, reduce the heat to very low, and simmer, stirring frequently,
until the rice grains are done, and the overall mass is the consistency
of a risotto or a thick porridge. Watch out; this will _really_ want to
burn. Add your poultry meat, and stir it in. Stir in your lard or
chicken fat, which should be cold, and stir constantly until it is
absorbed by the rice. Butter might do in a pinch. You need the fat to
keep the rice from getting gunky as it cools, just as you might do with
polenta or risotto. Season to taste with salt and sugar. If you think
it's too bland do it again, and continue until the whole thing tastes
right.

Pour into a wide shallow bowl, such as you might use for pasta, and
garnish one half with the almonds, and one half with either the confits
or the pomegranite kernels.

This is a pretty rich dish, and when served SCA-style with other dishes,
this ought to serve eight or more.

Hope this helps!

Adamantius
troy at asan.com
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