SC - Blancmanger birds

[Philip & Susan Troy]

> ------------------------------
> 
> Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 16:36:21 -0000
> From: "Yeldham, Caroline S" <csy20688 at GlaxoWellcome.co.uk>
> Subject: SC - Various, incl blancmanger
> 
> On the problems with bland blancmanger, apart from adding a little salt (is
> that immoral? - its certainly common in period sources) I would look at the
> type of chicken being used.  Although some chickens and capons were fattened
> up for luxury dishes, most were kept for their eggs and would only be eaten
> at the end of their laying life (or in emergency, I suppose).  They would
> have a much stronger flavour than modern chickens, particularly battery hens
> slaughtered at 16 weeks (that was the life-span I last heard quoted).  Given
> the treatment of the meat in blancmanger it has always struck me that it
> would be an ideal recipe for an elderly, tough hen.  Older hens are
> diffiicult to get hold of (at least here in the UK) unless you raise your
> own, but I have found boiling fowl, which have a much better flavour than
> roasting fowl.

These are certainly legitimate points. Probably some kind of free-range
bird is indicated, if available.  My only objection to part of the
sequence is that capons (usually what is specified in blancmanger
recipes) are specifically bred for meat, and are castrated males, and so
have no reproductive purpose, either for eggs or subsequent chicks. They
almost certainly were kept around and alive longer, since they grew more
slowly in the days before the Nasty Chemical Diet. The chances are good
that a period capon might well have had more flavor, and a somewhat more
active lifestyle, than its modern counterpart. But since some of the
level of activity is based on hormone-induced aggressiveness, there may
not have been too much of a difference after all. Just an inconclusive
Something to think about.

Adamantius
troy at asan.com
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