The jellies just mentioned form a transition to the com-
pound creams, or Bavaroises, or Bavarian cheeses, which
derive their consistency from gelatine, their richness from
cream, and their flavour from extract of fruit, and owing
to their triple basis are amongst the finest products of
culinary art.
BLANC-MANGER
271
Blanc-Manger and its Transformations.
It appears from a letter of Madame de Maintenon that
Dr. Fagon prescribed under the name of hlanc-manger
an aliment to be used by patients affected with in-
flammatory disorders. On following up the matter his-
torically, we found the following old recipe for hlmic-matiger :
Pound 125 grm. of blanched almonds with a little water,
and add a litre of consomm4 made without vegetables and
free from fat ; in the place of the vegetables put into the
bouillon with which you make consomm6 two cloves, a
stick of cinnamon, and some salt ; when the bouillon is
well mixed with the almonds, add 60 grm. of the white
flesh of roast fowl, minced and pounded, free from skin,
tendons, and bone ; or roast veal, or a piece of breadcrumb.
When all is well mixed, pass through the tammy, add
to the pur4e the juice of an orange and 125 grm. of
sugar✪ Blanc-Manger, and place on a lively fire until the composition
has become thickened.
This, then, is really a so^cp of almonds and supreme de
volaille in consomm6 ; how its name hlanc-manger came to
be confined to a white jelly is not ascertained ; but the
limitation is of relatively recent origin, perhaps not older
than the beginning of the present century.
A blanc-manger is nowadays a jelly made with calf’s foot,
or gelatine, and milk of almonds. There are several
modifications, marked by greater or lesser concentration
of the ingredients. A French recipe even goes so far as
to destroy the white colour of the jelly by an addition of
grenetine, being gelatine coloured red with alkanet-root or
cochineal. A recipe for a fried hlanc-manger leads to a
pudding-like mixture of rice-flour, cream, marchpanes,
macaroons, and eggs, lemon-zest, and salt, which is to be
fried in butter or lard. But this is a misapplication of the
name altogether, and should be discontinued.
272
THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY
Many modern recipes for hlanc-manger are content with
a mixture of milk and starch, w'hich, when boiled and
cooled, becomes an opaque jelly, a mere flummery. This
may be eaten with a sweet custard sauce. Others, again,
destroy the character of the dish by adding chocolate, and
term it chocolate blanc-manger. These are barbarisms from
which every Appreciator of good cookery must turn away.
Use of Perfumes and Ethers in Jellies.
Jellies should not be impregnated with mere perfu,rnes,
such as violets, for they will be as disappointing as the
sugared violets which became a fashion under the Second
Empire in France. Artiflcial ethers resembling fruit-
essences should also be avoided.
Fruit Jams which in England are called Cheese.
Page 175 · 1 recipe record on this page
Presented as published in 1895. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
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The jellies just mentioned form a transition to the com-
pound creams, or Bavaroises, or Bavarian cheeses, which
derive their consistency from gelatine, their richness from
cream, and their flavour from extract of fruit, and owing
to their triple basis are amongst the finest products of
culinary art.
BLANC-MANGER
271
Blanc-Manger and its Transformations.
It appears from a letter of Madame de Maintenon that
Dr. Fagon prescribed under the name of hlanc-manger
an aliment to be used by patients affected with in-
flammatory disorders. On following up the matter his-
torically, we found the following old recipe for hlmic-matiger :
Pound 125 grm. of blanched almonds with a little water,
and add a litre of consomm4 made without vegetables and
free from fat ; in the place of the vegetables put into the
bouillon with which you make consomm6 two cloves, a
stick of cinnamon, and some salt ; when the bouillon is
well mixed with the almonds, add 60 grm. of the white
flesh of roast fowl, minced and pounded, free from skin,
tendons, and bone ; or roast veal, or a piece of breadcrumb.
When all is well mixed, pass through the tammy, add
to the pur4e the juice of an orange and 125 grm. of
sugar, and place on a lively fire until the composition
has become thickened.
This, then, is really a so^cp of almonds and supreme de
volaille in consomm6 ; how its name hlanc-manger came to
be confined to a white jelly is not ascertained ; but the
limitation is of relatively recent origin, perhaps not older
than the beginning of the present century.
A blanc-manger is nowadays a jelly made with calf’s foot,
or gelatine, and milk of almonds. There are several
modifications, marked by greater or lesser concentration
of the ingredients. A French recipe even goes so far as
to destroy the white colour of the jelly by an addition of
grenetine, being gelatine coloured red with alkanet-root or
cochineal. A recipe for a fried hlanc-manger leads to a
pudding-like mixture of rice-flour, cream, marchpanes,
macaroons, and eggs, lemon-zest, and salt, which is to be
fried in butter or lard. But this is a misapplication of the
name altogether, and should be discontinued.
272
THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY
Many modern recipes for hlanc-manger are content with
a mixture of milk and starch, w'hich, when boiled and
cooled, becomes an opaque jelly, a mere flummery. This
may be eaten with a sweet custard sauce. Others, again,
destroy the character of the dish by adding chocolate, and
term it chocolate blanc-manger. These are barbarisms from
which every Appreciator of good cookery must turn away.
Use of Perfumes and Ethers in Jellies.
Jellies should not be impregnated with mere perfu,rnes,
such as violets, for they will be as disappointing as the
sugared violets which became a fashion under the Second
Empire in France. Artiflcial ethers resembling fruit-
essences should also be avoided.
Fruit Jams which in England are called Cheese.