School Dinners

The latest version of the blancmange is the sweet dish that evolved in the nineteenth century. From this time, cornflour (cornstarch) or gelatine was added and, as food manufacturing progressed, blancmange powder was born. Artificial colouring and flavours made it so that the dish that once graced the tables of kings and queens became the muted-coloured dessert that began to be disliked for its stodgy texture and often bland flavour. In the 1950s it was served at the conclusion of the school dinner and it is engraved on many people’s memories with such horror that most of them banished it from their lives forever. Little did these children know that this hated dish used to be something quite dainty and luxurious and the privilege of kings and queens.