Name: 15 Century: Strawberry Blancmange
Yield: 6 small individual basins, teacups or fancy moulds. Not suitable for a large mould.
Cuisine: United Kingdom
Ingredients: 40 g (1½ oz) rice flour; ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1 tablespoon unsalted butter; 100 ml (3½ fl oz) full-bodied red wine, such as a merlot (enough to cover the berries); 250 g (9 oz) strawberries, hulled; 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar; 1 tablespoon dried pomegranate seeds; 2 tablespoons currants; a pinch of pepper; ¼ teaspoon ground ginger; 20 g (¾ oz) blanched almonds; 40 g (1½ oz) raw sugar; ¼ teaspoon saffron threads; 250 ml (9 fl oz/1 cup) boiling water; ½ teaspoon rosewater

Preparation info

6
small individual basins, teacups or fancy moulds. Not suitable for a large mould.

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Pride and Pudding

By Regula Ysewijn

Published 2016

About

This dish was simply referred to as ‘Strawberry’ in the fifteenth century cookery manuscript where I found it. It was listed along with the same dishes all using different flavourings, such as violets, primroses and red roses. However, when making this pudding it becomes clear that this is the ancestor of the modern blancmange, made without meat and using cornflour (cornstarch) as a thickener along with all kinds of flavourings.