Blancmange is a sweet dessert usually made with milk or cream, sugar, and thickened with gelatin, cornstarch, Irish moss or isinglass, and sometimes arrowroot and tapioca. Blancmange is usually set in molds, cups, or wine glasses and chilled before serving.
Before commercial gelatin was produced, Irish Moss and isinglass were used. Irish moss is a reddish purple moss found in the Atlantic Ocean coastline, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. And Isinglassis a form of collagen made from the dried fish bladders of fish.
INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS
BLANCMANGE
It is best to make it the day before it is wanted. Put into a bowl an ounce of isinglass (in warm weather you must take an ounce and a quarter). Pour on as much rose water as will cover the isinglass and set it on hot ashes to dissolve. Blanch one-fourth pound of shelled almonds, (half sweet and half bitter*) and beat them to a paste in a mortar, one at a time, moistening them all the while with a little rose water.
Stir the almonds by degrees into a quart of cream, alternately with half a pound of powdered white sugar, and adding a teaspoon of beaten mace. Put in the melted isinglass and stir the whole very hard. Then put it into a porcelain skillet and let it boil fast for a quarter of an hour. Strain it into a pitcher and pour it into your molds, which must first be wetted with cold water. Let it stand in a cool place undisturbed till it has entirely congealed. Then wrap a cloth dipped in hot water round the molds, loosen the blancmange round the edges with a knife, and turn it out into glass dishes. Instead of using a figure-mold, you may set it to congeal in tea-cups or wine glasses.
Blancmange may be colored green by mixing a little juice of spinach with the cream. Cochineal*which has been infused in a little brandy for half an hour will color it red and saffron will give it a bright yellow tinge.
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*bitter almonds – a variety of almond with a bitter taste sometimes used as flavoring or in oils. The almond variety sold by the food industry today is the sweet almond.
*cochineal – insects found on the prickly pear cacti. They are dried to produce the natural dye that produces shades of red.
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BLANCMANGE. No. 2
In one teacup of water, boil until dissolved one ounce of isinglass or of patent gelatin (which is better). Stir it continually while boiling. Then squeeze the juice of a lemon upon a cup of fine, white sugar. Stir the sugar into a quart of rich cream and half a pint of Madeira or sherry wine. When it is well mixed, add the dissolved isinglass or gelatin, stir all well together and pour it into molds previously wet with cold water. Set the molds upon ice, let them stand until their contents are hard and cold, then serve with sugar and cream or custard sauce.
JAUNE-MANGE
Put two ounces of isinglass into a pint of water and boil it till it has dissolved. Then strain it into a porcelain skillet, and add to it half a pint of white wine, the grated peel and juice of two large deep-colored oranges, half a pound of loaf-sugar*, and the yolks only of eight eggs that have been well beaten. Mix the whole thoroughly, place it on hot coals and simmer it, stirring it all the time till it boils hard. Then take it off directly, strain it, and put it into molds to congeal.
*loaf sugar – sugar sold in a hard block, which has to be broken and then pounded into sugar granules.
ARROW ROOT BLANCMANGE
Take a teacup of arrow root, put it into a large bowl, and dissolve it in a little cold water. When it is melted, pour off the water, and let the arrow root remain undisturbed. Boil half a pint of unskimmed milk, made very sweet with white sugar, add a beaten nutmeg, and eight or nine blades of mace, mixed with the juice and grated peel of a lemon. When it has boiled long enough to be highly flavored, strain it into a pint and a half of very rich milk or cream, and add a quarter of a pound of sugar. Boil the whole for ten minutes, then strain it, boiling hot, over the arrow root. Stir it well and frequently till cold, then put it into molds and let it set to congeal.
TAPIOCA BLANCMANGE
Soak half a pound of tapioca in one pint of milk for half an hour, then boil till tender. Add a pinch of salt, sweeten to taste and put into a mold. When cold, turn it out and serve with strawberry or raspberry jam around it and a little cream. Flavor with lemon or vanilla.
CORNSTARCH BLANCMANGE
Take one quart of sweet milk* and put one pint upon the stove to heat. In the other pint, thoroughlymix four heaping tablespoons of cornstarch and half a cup of sugar. When the milk is hot, pour in the cold milk with the cornstarch and sugar and stir altogether until there are no lumps and it is thick. Flavor with lemon, take from the stove and add the whites of three eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Let cool before serving.
*sweet milk – whole milk; it was called sweet milk to distinguish it from buttermilk.
FRUIT BLANCMANGE
Stew nice, fresh fruit (cherries, raspberries, and strawberries being the best). Strain off the juice and sweeten to taste. Place it over the fire in a double kettle until it boils. While boiling, stir in cornstarch wet with a little cold water, allowing two tablespoons of cornstarch to each pint of juice. Continue stirring until sufficiently cooked, then pour into molds wet in cold water and set away to cool. Serve with cream and sugar.
CHOCOLATE BLANCMANGE
Soak half a box of gelatin in a cupful of water for an hour. Boil two cups of milk, then add the gelatin, half a cup of grated chocolate rubbed smooth in a little milk, and one cup of sugar. Boil all together eight or ten minutes. Remove from the fire and when nearly cold, beat into this the whipped whites of three eggs flavored with vanilla. This should be served cold with custard made of the yolks, or sugar and cream. Set the molds in a cold place.
photo credit SKopp on wikipedia
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You may enjoy this book. The recipes will be a little more modern than the ones in this post.
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