SC - Blanc Desire???

[Gryphon's Moon]

....Talking about the dish known as "blanc desire":
>I think the dishes are more inspired by Middle Eastern ingredients than
>by actual Middle Eastern dishes of the period because there sometimes
>seems to be no direct counterpart to some of the Anglo-Norman
>rice/almond dishes in the Arabic cookery sources. I could be wrong about
>this, though.
>
>Adamantius

In the glossary/index of Curye on Inglysch, Hieatt and Butler say: "The
various spellings may suggest the dish was thought to be Syrian; no doubt
it was Arabic in origin." That's all it says about the origin of the dish.
Frankly, I'm not sure I follow their reasoning. The various spellings they
refer to are:
	Blanc desire
	blank de surry
	blank desure
	blank de syry
	Blank dessorre
	blank desire

I could possibly see "blank de syry" being interpreted as "white of Syria",
but the other spellings seem closer to "desire", as in "something white
that's desirable". Am I off track here?

- -Margritte


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