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Blanc Mange
21/4 Cups Milk, scalded 6 Tablespoons Cornstarch Pinch of Salt 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Directions: Mix the cornstarch with one-quarter cup of cold milk, add the salt and stir the scalded milk slowly onto the cornstarch. Cook over water for 12 minutes, stirring till it thickens.
Add vanilla. Stir well. Turn in a mould wet with cold water to set.
A cornstarch mould rather than a gelatin one, and stiff enough to unmould and slice. Two things stand out: there is no sugar in the ingredient list, and the starch ratio is high by modern standards.
- No sugar — probably intentionalNo sugar — the ingredient list omits it. Blanc mange was commonly served with a sauce, preserves or fruit poured over it, which would carry the sweetness, though plenty of period recipes do sugar the pudding itself. If you want it sweet on its own, 3 to 4 tablespoons of sugar whisked into the cornstarch slurry will not go wrong.
- The starch ratioSix tablespoons of cornstarch to a little over two cups of milk gives a firm, sliceable pudding built to hold a mould's shape, not a spoonable custard. For a softer, creamier set use 4 tablespoons; at 6 it will stand up on a plate.
- "Cook over water"A double boiler over barely simmering water, not direct heat. The gentle heat is why the 12 minutes is safe — cornstarch scorches easily on the bottom of a pan and the milk skins over.
- Don't cut the 12 minutes shortThe mixture thickens well before it is done. Undercooked cornstarch tastes chalky and can thin back out as it stands, so keep it over the water and stirring for the full time after it has thickened.
- Scalding the milkHeat to about 180F, when bubbles ring the edge of the pan. Modern pasteurized milk does not need scalding for keeping quality, but starting with hot milk shortens the cooking and helps the starch swell evenly.
- Wetting the mouldRinsing the mould with cold water and leaving it wet is what lets the pudding release. A 3 to 4 cup mould or four individual custard cups is right for this quantity. Chill at least 3 hours, or until cold through.
- Yield and servingServes four. It wants something with it — a fruit sauce, stewed rhubarb, raspberry preserves, or thin cream, all of which appear alongside blanc mange in books of this kind.
"Blanc mange" is simply the French blanc manger, white food, and the name once covered a much richer thing: a medieval and early modern dish of pounded almonds, cream and often shredded capon breast, the medieval version characteristically thickened with rice and almonds, the later early modern one set with isinglass or hartshorn. By the later nineteenth century the meat had gone, the almonds were optional, and cheap boxed cornstarch had become the usual thickener, though gelatin, isinglass and Irish moss blancmanges persisted in American books throughout the period, so that in an American household book of this vintage blanc mange means a plain white cornstarch mould. That shift is the whole story of the recipe: it survives in a bride's cook book precisely because it is inexpensive, needs no oven, uses ingredients any pantry held, and looks impressive turned out of a fluted mould. Cornstarch itself was a nineteenth-century industrial product, marketed hard to home cooks with pamphlets full of exactly this sort of pudding.