SC - Blanc Desire???

[Wade Hutchison]

This dish (Blanc desire) is very similar to Viuand de Cypre, a recipe I've
been working on lately.  The explanation given for Viuand is that because
it contains sugar, and a major source of sugar in the 14th century was
the island of Cyprus, it was called food (or meat) of cyprus.  Could a 
similar cause be at work here - did almonds come mainly from Syria in period?
Perhaps this is an earlier recipe that was referring to the sugar coming
from the middle east?  The only difference in some of the versions
between Viuand de Cypre is that the meat is not roasted before being
ground up in the Blanc.  Was the name just to distinguish it from
an almost identical recipe - i.e. syrian 'style' was to not roast the 
meat, and cypriot 'style' was with roasted meat?  We may never know.
	-----wade/Gille

>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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