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Blancmange (, from french: blanc-manger ) is a sweet
dessert Dessert is a course (food), course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as confections, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. In some parts of the world, such as much of Greece and West Africa, and ...
popular throughout Europe commonly made with milk or cream and
sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...
thickened with rice flour,
gelatin Gelatin or gelatine (from la, gelatus meaning "stiff" or "frozen") is a translucent, colorless, flavorless food ingredient, commonly derived from collagen taken from animal body parts. It is brittle when dry and rubbery when moist. It may also ...
,
corn starch Corn starch, maize starch, or cornflour (British English) is the starch derived from corn (maize) grain. The starch is obtained from the endosperm of the kernel. Corn starch is a common food ingredient, often used to thicken sauces or sou ...
, or Irish moss (a source of carrageenan), and often flavoured with
almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree native to Iran and surrounding countries, including the Levant. The almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree. Within the genus ...
s. It is usually set in a mould and served cold. Although traditionally white (hence the name, in English literally "white eating"), blancmanges are frequently given alternative colours. Some similar desserts are French chef 's Bavarian cream, Italian , the
Middle Eastern The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (European ...
,
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
'' annin tofu,'' Hawai'ian and Puerto Rican . The historical blancmange originated at some time during the Middle Ages and usually consisted of capon or chicken, milk or almond milk, rice, and sugar and was considered to be ideal for the sick. is a sweet contemporary
Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...
pudding made with shredded chicken, similar to the medieval European dish.


History

The origins of the blancmange have long been believed to lie in the introduction of rice and almonds in early medieval Europe by Arab traders. Recently, it has been shown that there have been similar Arab dishes from that period. Variants of the dish appear in numerous European cultures with closely related names including in Italy and in Spain. Additionally, related or similar dishes have existed in other areas of Europe under different names, such as the 13th-century Danish ("white mush"), and the Anglo-Norman ("white Syrian dish"); Dutch (from Latin , "to strain") was known in English as and in French as , and was based on cooked and then strained poultry. The oldest recipe found so far for blancmange is from a copy of the oldest extant Danish cookbook, written by , who died in 1244, which dates it to the early 13th century at the latest. The Danish work may be a translation of a German cookbook, which is believed to have been based on a Latin or Romance vernacular manuscript from the 12th century or even earlier. The "whitedish" (from the original Old French term ) was an upper-class dish common to most of Europe during the Middle Ages and early modern period. It occurs in countless variations from recipe collections from all over Europe and was one of the few truly international dishes of medieval and early modern Europe. It is mentioned in the prologue to
Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...
's '' Canterbury Tales'' and in an early 15th-century cookbook written by the chefs of
Richard II Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father died ...
. The basic ingredients were milk or almond milk, sugar, and shredded chicken (usually capon) or fish, often combined with
rosewater Rose water ( fa, گلاب) is a flavoured water made by steeping rose petals in water. It is the hydrosol portion of the distillate of rose petals, a by-product of the production of rose oil for use in perfume. Rose water is also used to flavour ...
and rice flour, and mixed into a bland
stew A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. A stew needs to have raw ingredients added to the gravy. Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables and ...
. Almond milk and fish were used as substitutes for the other animal products on
fast Fast or FAST may refer to: * Fast (noun), high speed or velocity * Fast (noun, verb), to practice fasting, abstaining from food and/or water for a certain period of time Acronyms and coded Computing and software * ''Faceted Application of Subje ...
days and
Lent Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke ...
. It was also often flavoured with spices like saffron or cinnamon and the chicken could be exchanged for various types of fowl, like quail or partridge. Spices were often used in recipes of the later Middle Ages since they were considered highly prestigious. On festive occasions and among the upper classes, whitedishes were often rendered more festive by various colouring agents: the reddish-golden yellow of saffron; green with various
herb In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...
s; or sandalwood for russet. In 14th-century France, parti-colouring (the use of two bright contrasting colours on the same plate) was especially popular and was described by (also known as ), one of the primary authors of the later editions of . The brightly coloured whitedishes were one of the most common of the early entremets: edibles that were intended to entertain and delight through a gaudy appearance as much as through flavour. In the 17th century (1666), the
durian The durian (, ) is the edible fruit of several tree species belonging to the genus ''Durio''. There are 30 recognised ''Durio'' species, at least nine of which produce edible fruit. ''Durio zibethinus'', native to Borneo and Sumatra, is the onl ...
fruit was compared to blanc-mangé by Alexandre de Rhodes: In the 17th century, the whitedish evolved into a meatless dessert
pudding Pudding is a type of food. It can be either a dessert or a savoury (salty or spicy) dish served as part of the main meal. In the United States, ''pudding'' means a sweet, milk-based dessert similar in consistency to egg-based custards, ins ...
with cream and eggs, and later,
gelatin Gelatin or gelatine (from la, gelatus meaning "stiff" or "frozen") is a translucent, colorless, flavorless food ingredient, commonly derived from collagen taken from animal body parts. It is brittle when dry and rubbery when moist. It may also ...
. In the 19th century, arrowroot and cornflour were added, and the dish evolved into the modern blancmange.


Etymology

The word blancmange derives from Old French . The name "whitedish" is a modern term used by some historians, though the name historically was either a direct translation from or a calque of the Old French term. Many different local or regional terms were used for the dish in the Middle Ages:Scully, p. 208 * English: , , , , * Catalan: , , * Portuguese: * Italian: , , , * Spanish: * Dutch/Flemish: * German: * Latin:
Platina Platina is a municipality ''( município)'' in the state of São Paulo in Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and ...
, ''De honesta voluptate et valetudine'' book 6
Though it is fairly certain that the etymology is indeed "white dish", medieval sources are not always consistent as to the actual colour of the dish. Food scholar Terence Scully has proposed the alternative etymology of , "bland dish", reflecting its often mild and "dainty" (in this context meaning refined and aristocratic) taste and popularity as a sick dish.


See also

* * * * * * *


References


Sources

*''Food in the Middle Ages: A Book of Essays'' (1995) edited by Melitta Weiss Adamson *Ossa, Germán Patiño (2007).
Fogón de negros: cocina y cultura en una región latinoamericana.
' *Scully, Terence (1995), ''The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages''.


External links


Blanc-Manger: A Journey Through Time

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