SC - Blancmange

[snowfire at mail.snet.net]

- -Poster: Jean Holtom <Snowfire at mail.snet.net>
  
>> It looks quite good, actually. I note that you have blancmanger
>> (generally a dish of rice and almonds) and an almond rice dish
>> (a dish of rice and almonds) on the same menu.

>I am not the Coronation cook, but the recipe I have for "blancmanger" (need
>to look it up at home if you like, I think from Harlien) is, as His Highness
>said, a "chicken-mousse" sort of thing.  I remember learning in childhood
>that it was fed to invalids, and since the "blancmange" of those days is a
>stiff milk custard, I thought that made some sense.

>A period blancmanger involved the white meat of chicken, cooked and smushed
>up, with cream and some other things.  The idea is to keep it all very pale,
>even while ("blanc") as much as possible.  I'll try to remember to bring in
>the reference.
 
May I add my four pennyworth?
Blancmange is a dish I remember from Britain. As an invalid's dish as 
mentioned by the gentle above, and in desserts with 'Jello"  called "Jelly 
and Blancmange"  with fruit flavours to it like Strawberry or Orange, and 
available in Supermarkets commercially as a powder (like with jello is here). 
You'd add milk to it and it would set.  It was sometimes moulded for kid's 
parties - shapes like rabbits (lying down) were popular when I was a kid. 
Then you'd have green jelly chopped up and arranged on the plate around the 
turned out mould for the "grass" the rabbit was lying in.  We didn't usually 
use it in Trifle, we used Custard for that.

I wonder when it bacame a dessert?  Or are there savoury blancmanges like the 
chicken and cream version mentioned that are maybe predecessors to mousse (or 
in the same family of dish?) as well as dessert blancmanges like the moulded 
versions I remember and the Period almond and rice blancmanger as mentioned 
above?

Elysant
============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================