[Sca-cooks] wikipedia on blancmange

[Suey]

Ana Valdes wrote:
> Is Wikipedia's article a good reference? I found the blancmange reference to
> the arabic cuisine in a book written by a Mallorquin writer and edited in
> Mallorca. He wrote a quite exhaustive analys of the blanc mange's historical
> roots.
> Ana
>
>   
To me Wikipedia is basically correct. It is what we are all saying with 
a few exceptions. It maintains that this dish is based on rice and 
almonds. I believe the French used breadcrumbs as a thickener before or 
when they did not have rice. As far as the Arab origins, I repeat Perry 
says no but Gazquez compares a Sent Sovi and a Nola blancmange recipe to 
the 13th Anon's No. 395 Harisa de arroz which Perry translates as Rice 
Harisa.
Gazquez justifies this for two reasons” for the similarity between the 
recipes and because in comparing them it can be seen how Christian 
cookery is related to the Hispanic-Muslim and the Hispanic-Jewish 
cookery and it can be said that there is a relationship between all. In 
Nola’s case, an expanded copy of Sent Sovi, when the hygiene and 
sanitation theme of the period. On the other hand, the Sent Sovi recipe, 
greatly defused in European cookery, principally the French and Italian, 
contains "the first document of this recipe" (as far as I can see the 
Dutch translation is the first but anyway). Concerning the 13^th 
Anonymous, this “harisa” is very similar to blancmange, he continues, 
the only difference is the possibility of baking it.
It would be interesting to if you could provide the data about the 
Mallorcan write and edition. Rings a bell. I have a feeling I talked 
about that publication when there at Christmas time but not about 
blanmange in particular.
Suey