SC - Blanc Desire Again

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Gryphon's Moon wrote:
> 
> I've really enjoyed reading the responses to my first post regarding the
> recipes I found for Blanc Desire. The information regarding the possible
> origins of the name have been enlightening.
> 
> However, many of my other questions have not yet been addressed.

We get this way frequently. We haven't even had a week to mull over our
various arguments about the name, and that leaves a lot of the people on
the digest out of this! Puh-leeze!

Actually, in seriousness, people often ignore questions when they don't
feel they have anything to contribute, and hope someone else will.
Unfortunately, looks like no one felt they could answer the questions
properly. I'll do my best, but I should point out I've never made Blanc
Desire. 
 
> - Has anyone made this dish before, or have ideas about what the
> proportions should be?

No, as I say, I haven't. I'd suggest that a cup of almonds makes at
least a quart of almond milk, probably more, and I'd thicken it with
approximately 1 to 1 1/2 oz rice flour (4-6 Tbs) per quart, depending on
the desired thickness, and use that to bind approximately 1-2 lbs
cooked, chopped/ground/teased chicken breast or thigh meat, anywhere
from 3-5 cups, to get a thick, porridge-ey consistency. I don't really
care for these dishes to be too hardening-concrete thick, but something
more along the lines of a risotto, so you can actually spoon it down and
digest it without it sitting in your belly like a cinder-block.    
 
> - Has anyone run across similar recipes from other sources (all of mine
> came from Curye on Inglysch)?

See the Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery Books, ed. Austin, Early English
Text Society, found in H.G. Cariadoc's Collection of Medieval and
Renaissance Cookbooks. I believe they're in there, but I haven't seen
them in any other nglish sources, nor in any non-English sources.  
 
> - How sweet should the end product be? I was intrigued by the recent
> discussion which suggested that dishes with sugar in them were not
> necessarily meant to be sweet, and since this is a meat dish, I thought
> that might be what was meant here. However, several of the recipes specify
> that "a god perty" of sugar should be used, and that makes it sound like it
> should be quite sweet. Any ideas?

The "god perty" reference suggests to me that one shouldn't skimp,
meaning simply there should be enough to taste it, possibly have the
medicinal effect that sugar does have, if you buy the theory (you know
that vaguely expectorant reaction you can sometimes get when you eat
sugar, like your chest is producing additional lubricating gunk, like
you've recently swallowed guaiafenisin or some other cough syrup?).
Failing all that, season to taste with sugar, and you're sure to have
done it to the taste of at least one person, i.e. you, and you'll
probably find that most agree it is about right.

Sugar appears in many savory foods, and it really is a fine seasoning if
you can just use it with some subtlety. For a quart or so of Blanc
Desire, you might try starting with three tablespoons and see if you
think it needs more. I recall using about two ounces for my 1-quart test
batch of blancmanger. I'd say the idea is for it to be noticable, but
still considerably less sweet than your average cake batter or pudding
goo. 

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
============================================================================

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".

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