Almond Blancmange
A sweet, trembling almond milk jelly, perfumed with rose water and sugar, set cold and unmolded in immaculate white. The elegant treat of the Grand Siècle's great tables.
A sweet, trembling almond milk jelly, perfumed with rose water and sugar, set cold and unmolded in immaculate white. The elegant treat of the Grand Siècle's great tables.
Ah, blancmange! Here indeed is the dish of this world: all white, all smooth, all sweet, and saying nothing true. They serve it at Célimène's, and I look at it as I look at those powdered ladies — beautiful outside, empty within. Yet I confess quietly: when the almond is honest and the rose water discreet, it trembles on the tongue with a sweetness I dare not blame. Taste it, but ask no more sincerity from it than from a courtier.
- •Sweet almonds — a good handful (almond milk)
- •Water — as needed (milk extraction)
- •Sugar — to taste (sweetness)
- •Rose water — a few drops (flavor)
- •Isinglass or hartshorn — as needed for setting (gelling agent)
Almond Blancmange
A sweet, trembling almond milk jelly, perfumed with rose water and sugar, set cold and unmolded in immaculate white. The elegant treat of the Grand Siècle's great tables.
Why this dish? Célimène receives guests, and fashion demands white, delicate entremets that please the eye as much as the palate. Alceste sees the height of worldly coquetry — a dish as prettily painted as a salon face.
Ah, blancmange! Here indeed is the dish of this world: all white, all smooth, all sweet, and saying nothing true. They serve it at Célimène's, and I look at it as I look at those powdered ladies — beautiful outside, empty within. Yet I confess quietly: when the almond is honest and the rose water discreet, it trembles on the tongue with a sweetness I dare not blame. Taste it, but ask no more sincerity from it than from a courtier.
Ingredients (period version)
- Sweet almonds — a good handful (almond milk)
- Water — as needed (milk extraction)
- Sugar — to taste (sweetness)
- Rose water — a few drops (flavor)
- Isinglass or hartshorn — as needed for setting (gelling agent)
Ingredients
- Ground almonds (or blanched almonds blended) — 150 g (almond milk)
- Water — 500 ml (milk extraction)
- Sugar — 80 g (sweetness)
- Rose water — 1 tsp (flavor)
- Gelatin leaves — 4 leaves (8 g) (gelling agent)
Method
- Infuse the ground almonds in hot water for 20 minutes, then strain through a cloth, pressing well to obtain almond milk.
- Soften the gelatin in cold water.
- Heat the almond milk with the sugar without boiling, dissolve the squeezed-out gelatin, add the rose water.
- Pour into molds rinsed with cold water and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
- Unmold delicately onto a plate and serve well chilled.
How it was made : Blancmange spans the centuries: medieval versions mixed pounded chicken breast with almond; in the 17th century it became mostly this sweet almond jelly, set in the past with isinglass or grated hartshorn. It was molded and unmolded to impress guests with its perfect whiteness. No New World products here: almonds, cane sugar, and rose water had long been known in Europe.
The contemporary twist : Serve unmolded on a red berry coulis and a shower of toasted slivered almonds: Alceste's immaculate white, just slightly reddened with passion for Célimène.
Sources : François Pierre de La Varenne, Le Cuisinier françois, 1651 · L'École parfaite des officiers de bouche, 1662
Alceste · Charactorium
