[Sca-cooks] Blancmange

[Suey]

    Constance Hieatt and Sharon Butler in their edition of Curye on 
Inglysch state in their Index and Glossary that: . . medieval English 
dishes which bears some resemblance to a recipe of Apicius - Cibrium 
Album mentioned in the Cibria Alba recipe of HV. . .     Does anyone 
know what Apicius recipe they are talking about?
    Then they go on to state that they believe blancmange is of Arab, 
possibly of Syrian origin but left it open for experts in that field to 
explain that one. Perry devotes an entire chapter to: Isfidhabaj (which 
is Persian), Blancmanger and Almonds in the Medieval Arab Cookery. He 
finds no evidence that blancmange is a descendant of Isfidhabaj.
    Has anyone traced blancmange back to an Arab dish? Ana L. Valdes in 
Stefan's blancmange msg: 
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD/blancmange-msg.html states she has 
traced it to the Arabs. Then it came to Spain and after that to other 
countries. How so?
        Is this in reference to mehallaiyyah or mehalabeya? I do not 
think of medieval blancmange as a pudding but as a pottage and I don't 
see it becoming a dessert until the 17th Century.
    Further there is a statement at: 
http://european.hetto.org/european-food/25.html that Catalan recipe 
similar to blancmange in the 8th C. Is there any validity to that? Or is 
Sent Sovi older than we think?
Suey