SC - Various, incl blancmanger

[Yeldham, Caroline S]

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.


BTW I apologise, I fell into a classic trap on my last posting, of
misremembering a book.  I referred to 'Fast and Feast' by Bridget Ann
Henisch and hope I got it right this time.

Pipefarces - I have found these very popular and have tended to use crumbly
cheese since I was told that 'cheddering' was very rare until the 17th
century (extra labour).  The Cheshire/Wensleydale/Lancashire type of cheese
works very well, melting but tending not to develop those long rubbery lines
cheddar does.  I still have problems getting the batter to stick to the top
of the pipe whilst cooking the first side tho - any suggestions?

Someone mentioned cinnamon mead - sounds lovely, any chance of a recipe?

Caroline

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