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Blancmange, pronounced *, is a jelly dessert made of milk and/or cream, sugar, gelatin or cornstarch, and flavouring (usually almond). It is set in a mould and served cold.
Blancmange originated in the Arab world where it is known as "mehallabiyyah" (gets eaten quickly, presumably because it is good) and reached medieval Europe through Sicily and Spain. Its basic form involved shredded capon flesh and almond milk or ground almonds, often with rosewater, boiled together into a thick soup or runny stew. In the 16th century, a meatless version using cream, sugar and eggs was developed, and towards the end of the 17th century, a new kind of blancmange, a calf's foot or hartshorn jelly flavoured with almond and rosewater, and perhaps including milk, was introduced. In the 19th century, this was prepared using arrowroot, today cornflour is usually used. Blancmanges are usually pink or white.
The term blancmange is derived from the Middle English blankmanger, from Old French blanc mangier: blanc, white (of Germanic origin) + mangier, to eat, food (from Latin manducare). Several medieval recipes for blancmange have survived, and the dish is mentioned in the prologue to Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
Some similar desserts are: Bavarian cream, malabi, flan.
Blancmanges in Monty Python's TV humor
Warning: unappetizing scenes described
Blancmanges feature prominently in the latter four linked TV sketches of Monty Python's Flying Circus Episode Seven: You're no fun any more. (Science fiction sketch; Man turns into Scotsman; Police station; Blancmanges playing tennis)
A table-size sentient Blancmange from planet Skyron of Andromeda galaxy turns the tables by eating people. Alien Blancmange(s) also have the power to instantly turn 48 million English citizens into northward-marching Scots. Chief Scientist Charles, his mistreated bimbo girlfriend, and a police detective eventually deduce that this bizarre cultural conversion and tennis player consumption is an effort to depopulate England and win the Wimbledon tennis championships. The core theory here is that if everyone in the United Kingdom is turned into Scotspeople, they are sure to lose the tennis match, since (according to the characters) Scots are terrible at tennis. Exactly what, if anything, the blancmanges stand to gain by winning at Wimbledon is never brought up.
The Blancmange(s) from space then eat 1970s tennis stars. A single tennis-playing Blancmange is thwarted when it is chased and eaten by a couple, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Brainsample, armed with forks, spoons, and napkins. With all the famous players and the Blancmange eaten, the only remaining tennis player is kilt salesman Angus Podgorny, leading to the unlikely result of a Scotsman winning Wimbledon after playing against himself for 15 years.
Multiple Blancmange sightings are mentioned, but only one is seen and eaten in the final sketch. The Monty Python Blancmange looks more like a round coffee table in a white fabric tent than a gelatinous pudding.
Blancmange puddings are commonplace in the UK and thus unexplained in the sketch. No real blancmanges appear. That food is generally unfamiliar to Americans, and the intended food humor is typically incomprehensible in the U.S. Fortunately "Blancmange" is spelled out in a tennis score and can be looked up. The incomprehensibility enhances the Pythonesque reputation for creative absurdity, but the people-eating scenes (off camera with slurping noises) become more horrific than the writers intended.
External links
"Blancmange"