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Sago Blancmange
Soak five ounces of sago for five hours in a pint of cold water, then stir into it a pint and a half of boiling milk, add three ounces of castor sugar and ten drops of vanilla. Boil for twenty minutes, stirring all the time, then pour into a mould, and when cold turn out and pour custard round.
A plain starch mould of the sort Victorian and Edwardian kitchens turned out by the dozen. The whole thing hinges on constant stirring: sago sinks and scorches the moment you stop.
- Sago itselfUse small pearl sago, sold in Asian and South Asian groceries, not the large boba-sized pearls, which will not break down in twenty minutes. Tapioca pearls of the same size behave similarly, though the set is slightly stickier.
- Castor sugarSuperfine or caster sugar; ordinary granulated works here since everything is boiled long enough to dissolve.
- Ten drops of vanillaThis means a concentrated vanilla essence rather than a modern extract used by the spoonful. Start with about half a teaspoon of good extract and taste before moulding.
- Quantities in modern termsFive ounces of sago is about 3/4 cup; a pint is 20 fl oz in British measure, so read the pint of water as 2 1/2 cups and the pint and a half of milk as about 3 3/4 cups.
- The stirringTwenty minutes of continuous stirring over moderate heat, with a heavy pan and a flat-ended wooden spoon. Sago settles and catches, and once it tastes scorched the mould is finished.
- Do not drain the soaking waterThe recipe stirs the boiling milk straight into the soaked sago, water and all. That water carries dissolved starch and is part of the set.
- Moulding and turning outRinse the mould with cold water and do not dry it; the film of water helps release. Chill at least four hours, ideally overnight, then dip the mould briefly in hot water before inverting.
- The custard round itA pouring custard, that is a thin crème anglaise, served cold in a pool around the base. Serves about six.
Blancmange began as a medieval dish of pounded almonds and capon or fish, thickened and set pale white, which is what the name describes. By the nineteenth century the meat had gone and the term covered any white moulded sweet stiffened with a starch, whether cornflour, arrowroot, ground rice or, as here, sago. Sago, the starch extracted from the pith of tropical palms, reached British kitchens through the colonial trade and was prized as cheap, bland and easily digested, which is why it turns up constantly in invalid cookery and nursery menus of the period alongside arrowroot and tapioca. It was a useful, economical mould that stretched a little milk and sugar into a dish for a family table.