Subject: Re: Almond milk

From: Alan Deacon <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 1995 13:29:39 GMT

[email-masked] (David Williams) writes:

>I then replied with a simple recipe and this was taken up by
>Stephen Bloch who suggested that many medieval recipes called for
>broth or wine rather than water.

>Well this is true in the sense they were used, with the addition of
>spices and blanched onions, as a soup rather than a beverage. 
>Later, another form of almond milk was when crushed almonds were
>heated with milk and sugar then strained to produce a cold dessert
>that is comparable to the blancmange of today, except of course we
>set it using gelatine.

Personally I have usually made almond milk using ground almonds, wine
(either red or white) and a sweetener (honey or sugar). This provides
the basis for a sauce which may be used in a variety of dishes. The
recipes in an Ordinance of Pottage make heavy use of almond milk,
especially during lent when milk-based sauces were generally not used.
Red wine makes a nice pinky sauce which goes very well with urchins,
or other forcemeat.

I prefer the medieval blanc-mange (white eating) of white chicken meat,
rice, sugar, etc to the modern item of the same name.

>David Williams.
>Sheringham. Norfolk. UK.
>[email-masked] 

BTW How's the north-norfolk railway doing these days?

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