Jaune Mange
The blanc mange of the preceding receipt with 6 yolks of eggs beaten in after the gelatine is dissolved and just before taking from the fire. Divide the blanc mange and color only half of it yellow with 3 or 4 yolk, and thus have two colors cut in small blocks to serve in the same saucers. Jaune is yellow, as blanc is white.
This is a variation note rather than a standalone recipe: it assumes the blanc mange on the preceding page, which in this book means milk sweetened, flavored and set with gelatine. The yolks turn it into a stirred custard, which is where the care is needed.
- The hinge: do not let the yolks boilBeat the yolks with a little of the hot milk to temper them, return the mixture to the pan, and hold it just under a simmer until it thickens slightly and coats a spoon — roughly 175-180F. Above that the yolks curdle and no amount of stirring will bring the custard back smooth.
- Gelatine equivalentsPeriod blanc mange recipes call for gelatine by the ounce, box or sheet, and the strengths were not standardized. For a firm mold that can be cut into blocks, reckon on about 2 1/2 to 3 teaspoons of modern powdered gelatine (one envelope is 2 1/4 tsp) per pint of liquid; a soft spooned cream needs half that.
- Add the gelatine off the heatDissolve the gelatine before the yolks go in -- The text says the yolks go in after the gelatine is dissolved. Sustained boiling weakens gelatine's set, so dissolve it in the warm milk and keep the pan below a simmer from that point on.
- Splitting the batchThe instruction is slightly self-contradictory as written: six yolks for the whole quantity, then only three or four yolks for the half that is colored. Read it as the second method — leave half plain white, and stir three or four yolks into the other half for the yellow.
- Color and flavorYolks alone give a pale straw color rather than a strong yellow. Some period recipes reinforced it with saffron or orange; a pinch of saffron steeped in the hot milk gives the intended contrast without artificial coloring.
- Setting for cut blocksPour each color into a shallow pan to a depth of about an inch and chill at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. Cut with a thin knife dipped in hot water so the edges stay square.
- SaucersThe "saucers" of the original are most likely small shallow dessert dishes rather than tea saucers as we picture them.
The name follows a simple logic: blanc manger is "white eating," so jaune mange is simply its yellow counterpart. Blancmange has a long history in English kitchens, and by the late nineteenth century it had settled into the milk-and-gelatine cream this book describes; the yellow version, thickened or tinted with yolks and sometimes orange juice or wine, appears alongside it in English and American manuals throughout the 1800s. The instruction to cut the two colors into blocks and serve them together belongs to the same taste for contrast that produced ribboned jellies and checkerboard molds, effects that cooks achieved with isinglass and calf's-foot stock well before commercial gelatine.