Home Page

Stefan's Florilegium

Blancmange-art



This document is also available in: text or Word formats.

Blancmange-art - 2/9/18

 

"Blancmange" by Ysabel de la Oya.

 

NOTE: See also the files: blancmange-msg, rice-msg, Lent-msg, Almond-Milk-art, almond-milk-msg, fasts-msg, chicken-msg, chicken-legs-msg, herbs-msg.

 

************************************************************************

NOTICE -

 

This article was added to this set of files, called Stefan's Florilegium, with the permission of the author.

 

These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

 

Copyright to the contents of this file remains with the author or translator.

 

While the author will likely give permission for this work to be reprinted in SCA type publications, please check with the author first or check for any permissions granted at the end of this file.

 

Thank you,

Mark S. Harris...AKA:..Stefan li Rous

stefan at florilegium.org

************************************************************************

 

You can find more work by this author in her blog at:

http://www.ysabeldelaoya.com

 

Blancmange

by Ysabel de la Oya

 

Winter is thankfully coming to an end, but stocks are still low.  The manor home may have some salted meat (or fresh if you are lucky), cereal grains (such as wheat, rice, and rye), and root vegetables.  Lent is starting soon, taking with it the possibility of meat.  It's time for one of the middle ages' most common dishes: chicken and rice.  In the period chicken and rice made with almond milk was known as blancmange (or blamanger).  

 

 

I'm using a 15th-century English recipe, but the dish was found throughout Medieval Europe.  Made plainly, this could be food for the sick, or with herbs and spices to alter the taste or color to show off wealth.  The chicken could be ground or cut small and could be swapped out with other poultry or even fish. I'm using fresh chicken, but salted meat might have been all that the cook could have gotten.  Salted chicken would have needed to be soaked and the water changed a few times.  

 

Blamanger. Take faire Almondes, and blanche hem, And grynde hem with sugour water into faire mylke; and take ryse, and seth. And whan they beth wel y-sodde, take hem vppe, and caste hem to the almondes mylke, and lete hem boile togidre til thei be thikk; And then take the brawne of a Capon, and tese hit small, And caste thereto; and then take Sugur and salt, and caste thereto, and serue hit forth in maner of mortrewes.

Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books, T. Austin (ed.)

 

Take fair almonds and blanch them, and grind them with sugar water into fair milk, and take rice and seethe.  And when they are well soaked them up and cast them into the almond milk, and let them boil together till they are thick.  And then take the meat of a chicken (capon) and cut it small and cast thereto and then take sugar and salt and cast thereto and serve it.

 

My recipe

 

1 1/2 cup rice

3 cups water (plus extra water to cover chicken half way up)

1/2 cup ground almonds

4 chicken thighs

2 tsp sugar

Pinch dried rosemary

Pinch dried thyme

Pinch dried parsley

salt

 

Put the chicken thighs (with bone and skin on) in a deep skillet/pan and cover half way up with water, sprinkle in some dried rosemary, thyme, and parsley.  Cook on medium for about an hour or so, until the chicken can easily separate from the bone, flipping the chicken once halfway through.  

 

In a smallish pot soak the ground almonds in 3 cups of very hot water, for at least half an hour (and now we have almond milk, see how easy it is?).   Soak rice in (other) water for about five minutes, then rinse very well.    Strain the almonds out of the almond milk and set aside.  Add a tsp of sugar to the almond milk, then add the rice.  Bring the rice to a boil over medium heat then set to very low until rice is cooked (or however you like to cook rice).

 

Debone and cut the chicken up into small pieces.  Add the chicken to the cooked rice, top with a few heavy pinches of salt another tsp of sugar.  

 

To me, the resulting dish tasted pretty much like the chicken and rice I grew up eating.  It was, honestly, a bit dry, and it could have done with some more water in the rice, and perhaps some of the chicken cooking liquid.  From what I glean, the medieval dish would have been wetter than what mine was.  And when I eat the leftovers tomorrow, I'm adding butter.

 

To my husband, it tasted sweeter than it did to me, and he added sour cream to his second bowl,  but he really liked it.  He thought it needed more meat, where I think it had more meat than it might have had in period.  

 

According to Garcia:

"What kind of rice is sweet, it's amazing.  4 out of 5 Garcia's, it's kinda dry"

 

------

Copyright 2018 by Michelle Araj. <ysabeloya at gmail.com>. Permission is granted for republication in SCA-related publications, provided the author is credited.  Addresses change, but a reasonable attempt should be made to ensure that the author is notified of the publication and if possible receives a copy.

 

If this article is reprinted in a publication, please place a notice in the publication that you found this article in the Florilegium. I would also appreciate an email to myself, so that I can track which articles are being reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan.

 

<the end>



Formatting copyright © Mark S. Harris (THLord Stefan li Rous).
All other copyrights are property of the original article and message authors.

Comments to the Editor: stefan at florilegium.org