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RICE BLANCMANGE (a German recipe)
Take half a pound of ground rice and boil it in a quart of milk or cream, adding sugar, lemon-peel, and a stick of cinnamon or a piece of vanilla. When the rice is well boiled take out the spice and lemon-peel; dip a basin or mould into cold water, and pour the rice into it. When the rice is quite cold, turn it out, and serve with a custard or fruit sauce poured over.
A plain moulded rice pudding set without gelatine — the starch in the ground rice does all the work. The only real difficulty is getting it cooked through without scorching or lumping.
- Quantities in modern termsHalf a pound of ground rice is about 225 g; an imperial quart is 40 fl oz, or a little over 1.1 litres. That is a stiff ratio, which is what helps it turn out of the mould cleanly.
- Ground rice, not rice flourGround rice is coarser than rice flour and gives the finished mould a faint grain. Rice flour will work but sets denser and smoother; whole rice grains are unlikely to give a mould firm enough to turn out cleanly.
- Slake it firstMix the ground rice to a smooth paste with a little of the cold milk before adding it to the hot, or it will seize into lumps that no amount of beating removes.
- Low heat and constant stirringStarch this thick catches on the base of the pan within seconds. Use a heavy saucepan over low heat and keep a wooden spoon moving across the bottom and into the corners. Reckon 15–20 minutes from the point it thickens; the raw floury taste must cook out.
- SugarNo amount is given. Around 60–75 g for the full quantity suits a dessert that will be served with sweet custard or fruit sauce.
- The wetted mouldDipping the basin in cold water and leaving it unwiped is the traditional trick for turning out — the film of water stops the starch gripping the mould.
- Setting time"Quite cold" means several hours; overnight in the refrigerator is safest for a clean turn-out. Loosen the edge with a finger before inverting.
- YieldServes six to eight. A little goes a long way, and it is bland by design — the custard or fruit sauce is not optional garnish but half the dish.
Blancmange began in medieval Europe as a savoury-sweet dish of pounded chicken, almonds, rice and sugar, its name simply meaning "white food"; by the nineteenth century the meat had gone and it survived as a white moulded pudding, set variously with isinglass, gelatine, arrowroot, cornflour or, as here, rice. The recipe's own title labels this version German, and it belongs to the broad family of continental rice puddings, which were often served cold with a red fruit sauce. The starch-set version had the practical advantage of needing no gelatine at all, and it made a cheap company dessert from little more than milk, rice and sugar.