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Blancmange, Rice
Blanch almonds and pound to a paste, as already directed for blancmange, using a little more cold water. Boil three ounces of rice, three ounces of loaf sugar, the rind of half a lemon, a piece of cinnamon, and a stick of vanilla, with a pint and a half of new milk. When the rice is boiled to a pulp, add the almond paste and liquid, and simmer ten minutes. Then put into it three-quarters of an ounce of isinglass, and when dissolved, pass the whole through a sieve into a mould, and stand in a cold place till firmly set. Serve with a cream over it. Probable cost, 1s. 8d.
A Victorian almond-and-rice blancmange, set with isinglass rather than the packet gelatine or cornflour most later versions use. The two things to get right are the strength of the setting agent and the sieving.
- Imperial measuresA pint and a half here is an imperial pint and a half — 30 fl oz, about 850 ml. Three ounces is roughly 85 g of rice and the same of sugar.
- Isinglass and gelatineIsinglass is dried sturgeon swim-bladder, sold as a setting agent well into the twentieth century and now largely confined to brewing. Period isinglass came in grades of varying strength, so no exact modern equivalent can be given for the three-quarters of an ounce called for; as a working figure, something in the region of 15-18 g of powdered gelatine for this volume of liquid gives a blancmange that will turn out of a mould but still cut with a spoon.
- Loaf sugar and new milkLoaf sugar was refined sugar broken from a cone — ordinary granulated or caster sugar is the equivalent. "New milk" means fresh whole milk, as opposed to skimmed or the previous day's.
- The almond pasteThe instruction is to blanch almonds, pound them, and let the paste down with cold water — an almond milk, not a marzipan. The quantities are not given here; the recipe refers back to the earlier blancmange entry. A food processor does in two minutes what a mortar did in twenty; as a starting point, try about 4 oz (115 g) of blanched almonds to a cup of cold water and blitz until smooth.
- The riceUse a short-grain pudding rice. It must be cooked right down to a pulp before the almond liquid goes in, or the sieving stage becomes an argument.
- SievingPassing the whole mixture through a sieve is what makes the difference between blancmange and rice pudding. Push it through with the back of a ladle while still hot; a blender first, then a fine sieve, gets there faster.
- FlavouringsA "stick of vanilla" is a vanilla pod — half a pod is plenty at this scale. Fish out the lemon rind, cinnamon and pod before sieving.
- Setting and turning outRinse the mould in cold water before filling so the blancmange releases cleanly. "A cold place" means the refrigerator now; allow four to six hours, or overnight.
- YieldThe quantities should fill a mould of roughly 1.2 litres and serve about six. The recipe says only to serve 'with a cream over it', without specifying what kind; plain pouring cream is the obvious modern reading.
Blanc manger — literally "white food" — began as a medieval dish that was not a dessert at all: pounded almonds, rice or rice flour, sugar and shredded white meat, usually capon, served as a delicate invalid or feast-day dish across Europe. The meat dropped away over the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, leaving the almonds, the rice and the whiteness, and by the time Cassell's was compiled the word meant a moulded sweet set with isinglass or gelatine. This rice version is the older, thriftier form: the rice does much of the thickening, so less setting agent is needed, and the almonds carry the flavour. Isinglass was the fine-quality setting agent of the period, prized because it gave a clear, clean-tasting jelly where cheaper calves'-foot stock could taste of the kitchen. The stated cost of 1s. 8d. marks it as a modest company dish rather than an everyday pudding.