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Apricot Blanc Mange
Half of a large can of apricots will be sufficient.
To 1 cupful of the syrup add 1 cupful of boiling water and 1 tablespoonful of lemon juice and put over the fire. When boiling add 2 tablespoonfuls of corn-starch and a pinch of salt mixed to a smooth paste with cold water and stir until thickened. Cover and cook for thirty minutes, then add the fruit mashed to a smooth pulp, beat thoroughly, turn into molds and serve very cold with cream and sugar.
A cornstarch pudding built on canned fruit syrup rather than milk, which is why it sets clear and can be served to anyone avoiding dairy until the cream goes on at the end. The whole thing hinges on cooking the starch long enough to lose its raw taste without breaking the gel.
- The half can"Large can" is not a standardized size here, so treat the quantities as approximate: what matters is getting the 1 cupful of syrup and roughly a cupful of fruit to mash. A modern can may not yield a full cup of syrup.
- Syrup sweetness variesCanned fruit of this period was commonly packed in a heavy syrup. If yours is in light syrup or juice, the pudding may taste thin — taste after the lemon juice goes in and add a tablespoon or two of sugar before the starch.
- "Over the fire"Direct heat on a low burner, stirring. Cornstarch scorches easily in a thin pan, so use a heavy saucepan or set the pan in a wider pan of simmering water for the long covered cooking.
- Mix the starch coldThe 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and salt must be slurried smooth with a little cold water before they meet the boiling liquid, exactly as written. Dropped in dry they seize into lumps that never disperse.
- Thirty minutes is not a misprintCornstarch thickens in about a minute but tastes chalky until the granules cook out. Keep it covered over the gentlest heat and stir occasionally; hard boiling at this stage shears the starch and the pudding will not set firm.
- Add the fruit off the heatAdd the fruit after the starch has finished cooking -- Mash or purée the apricots and beat them in once the thirty minutes are up. The recipe does not say to take the pan off the fire, but fruit acid worked into a still-simmering starch gel can thin it.
- Molds and unmoldingRinse the molds with cold water so the blanc mange slips out. Chill at least 4 hours, or overnight; "very cold" is the point of the dish, and 2 tablespoons of starch to 2 cups of liquid gives a soft set that needs full chilling to hold its shape.
- YieldFour small molds, or one 3-cup mold. Cream and sugar poured over at the table is the intended finish, and it is not optional — the pudding itself is deliberately lean.
Blanc mange began as a medieval European dish of pounded almonds, sugar and a starch or gelatin binder — the name is simply French for "white food" — and by the nineteenth century the term had loosened to mean almost any molded starch or gelatin pudding, white or not. This apricot version belongs to a later, thriftier branch of the family: cornstarch had become cheap and universal in American pantries after the mid-1800s, and canned fruit put dessert within reach of households that could not spare milk, eggs or almonds. Note that the recipe uses the syrup as the entire liquid base and flavoring, getting two dishes' worth out of one can.