[Sca-cooks] Recipe evolution

[Harris Mark.S-rsve60]

Huette commented:
>>>>>>
There was a big shift in how people cooked during
the mid-seventeenth century.  Recipes changed and
new ones were created.  One example is
blancmange.
During period, blancmange was a dish of chicken,
rice, almonds and other ingredients.  You can
find blancmange in modern cookbooks, but it isn't
the same recipe anymore.  Today's blancmange is a
gelatin dessert flavored with milk or almond milk
and other ingredients, but the chicken and rice
are no longer in evidence.  To make a modern
blancmange and serve it as a period dish would be
wrong bacause the name may be the same, but the
dish isn't.
<<<<<
This is an interesting example of recipe evolution. I'm afraid I'm not that familiar with blancmange, though.

Was this a sudden change in the mid 17th century? Or a gradual change over time? Over perhaps a gradaul change can be documented with a sudden shift in the 17th century? Do we have enough blancmange recipes to track this? I don't remember blancmange being a recipe that has been addressed here much.

If someone would like to research this, it might make an interesting paper. I, for one, would love to read it and would be interested in considering it for the Florilegium.

Stefan