Sweet Almond Custard: Blancmange

I first read about blancmange in Richard Olney’s The French Menu Cookbook, in which he suggests serving it as a perfect accompaniment to a glass of good Sauternes. Sometimes called blanc-manger, it is one of France’s oldest dishes (it’s first described in the fourteenth century) but is almost never served in French restaurants. I encountered it once, served as a tiny hors d’oeuvre at Joel Robuchon’s three-star restaurant Jamin, where it was served in tiny glasses and topped with finely chopped tomatoes—a combination impossible to imagine but one that worked.