RICE BLANCMANGE

The cookbook was very general regarding what ingredients to use and how to sweeten and flavour the dish. My reasoning for the following ingredients and quantities used are included in this exhibit. 

• 175 g Arborio Rice
  • Since the recipe calls for the blancmange to be put into a mold and turned out, I concluded that the rice has to be sticky and soft in order to hold its shape when poured out of the mold
  • Italian Arborio rice is a short grain white rice commonly used in Risotto, that results in a creamy consistency once cooked.
• 2.5 cups Whole Milk
  • Milk during the time the recipe was written, probably didn’t come from the store – and if it did, it was probably from milk that was from a nearby farm
  • On another page of the original cookbook that gives general directions for making custard, it says that, “milk should always be boiled, and cooled again before being used; this makes it richer”- since the recipe suggests using “richer” milk, I have decided to use whole milk with 3.25% milk fat
• 75 g sugar
  • the recipe wasn’t specific about what to use as a sweetener. Looking at other desserts in the cookbook, in a recipe for “Pumpkin Pie”, the pumpkin is sweetened with sugar. Another recipe for “gooseberry fool” also uses sugar as the sweetener. Based on this information, and the number of recipes that use sugar as the sweetener, I am going to assume that the authors of this book was referring to sugar as a sweetener.
• ¼ tsp. nutmeg
• ¼ tsp cinnamon