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Chocolate Blancmange
Soak one ounce of gelatine in new milk for six hours. Grate a quarter of a pound of chocolate, and mix it to a smooth paste with a little cold milk. Boil one quart of milk, add the chocolate, and stir till it is dissolved; then add the dissolved gelatine, three ounces of sugar, and the yolks of three eggs. Stir over the fire until the eggs are cooked, but take care that they do not curdle. Flavour with vanilla, and pour into a damp mould. Probable cost, 1s. 3d.
A stirred custard set with gelatine, from the era when blancmange meant any moulded milk pudding rather than a specifically white one. Two things need attention: the gelatine quantity and the temperature at which you stop stirring.
- GelatineSheet gelatine of this period was probably less concentrated and less consistent than modern gelatine. An ounce of today's powdered gelatine to a quart of liquid gives a rubbery, sliceable block; about half that, roughly two 1/4-oz envelopes, sets a spoonable pudding that will still turn out of a mould. Soaking in cold milk rather than water does no harm, though 10 minutes is enough for powder.
- New milkFresh whole milk, as opposed to skimmed or the previous day's. Use whole milk; the fat matters to the texture here since there is no cream.
- The chocolateHousehold chocolate of the period was generally a plain, only lightly sweetened cake meant for drinking, so unsweetened baking chocolate is the closest match to what the recipe assumes. If you use a 70% dark chocolate you will probably want less than the three ounces of sugar; with anything sweeter the pudding may cloy.
- Cooking the yolksThe instruction not to curdle is the hinge. Take the custard to 175-180F on an instant-read thermometer, stirring constantly, and pull it off there. Above about 185F the yolk proteins seize and the mixture goes grainy. If the gelatine has already gone in, keep the heat gentle throughout, as prolonged boiling weakens its set.
- Damp mouldRinse the mould with cold water and do not dry it. The film of water lets the set pudding release. A 1 1/2-quart mould or six ramekins suits this quantity.
- ChillingThe original assumes a cold larder and gives no time. Allow at least four hours in the refrigerator, preferably overnight. To turn out, dip the mould briefly in warm water and invert.
- Yield and costServes six to eight. The 1s 3d is the book's own retail estimate for its day; no source is given for it here.
Blancmange is literally "white food," a name inherited from the medieval European blanc manger, a dish of pounded almonds, capon or fish, rice and sugar whose whiteness is often said to have signalled refinement. By the nineteenth century the meat had gone, the almonds were optional, and the name had attached itself to any milk pudding stiffened with isinglass, calf's-foot jelly, arrowroot or, increasingly, commercially packaged gelatine, which is what makes a chocolate blancmange possible at all as a self-contradicting name.