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Manjar Blanco sobre Capones

(Blancmanger on capons)
by
Martino da Como
recipe no. 41 from the "Libro de Arte Culinaria" ca. 1450-60

Note: Instructions in normal letters are pretty clear in the original. My interpretations are in italics.

Ingredients, for 12 bowls

for the base:

  • 1 or 2 capons (fattened chickens) – or normal chickens – either roasted whole or in pieces.

In the case of whole bird(s) the sauce will be poured on top. In the second case, the pieces are served with the sauce in individual bowls.

 for the sauce:
  • 2 pounds of very white, ground almonds1
  • 1 capon breast, cooked2 and ground
  • 1 piece of white bread (to use the crumbs)
  • lean capon broth –home-made or from cubes
  • some "agraz" (grape that is not yet mature, or the juice of such grapes)– or white wine vinegar as a substitute
  • Half an ounce of (peeled root of) ginger
  • Half a pound or more of white sugar
  • 3 ounces (though I guess that depends on the concentration3) of good rosewater.
 optional garnish:
      • bits of apple
optional to make "broom" (as in the plant with yellow flowers, "retama" in Spanish):
  • 1 egg yolk
  • saffron
  • some more agraz (or vinegar)
 Roast one or two capons, whole or in pieces. The manjar blanco itself will be the accompanying sauce which can be made while the capons roast or at your convenience.

Grind the breast with the almonds. Soak the bread crumbs in broth and add to the mix. Add the agraz (or vinegar), ginger, sugar and some more broth. (See my last interpretation of how to make this sauce.)
Strain the mix and gently simmer the resulting sauce, stirring frequently. Cook for about half an hour.
Add rosewater to the sauce.

Optional –"retama" ("broom") sauce


Take part of the white sauce and add one egg yolk, saffron and some agraz (or vinegar) so that it ends-up yellow and more sour than the white one.
 

Presentation

With white sauce only
The capon(s) are served on a platter with the white sauce over it and garnished with pieces of apple (¿cooked? ¿sprinkled with lemon or some other acid?). If the capon is erved in pieces divided into bowls and adorn it in the same manner.

Parti-coloured Manjar – white and "broom" sauces
Cover part of the capon with one sauce and the rest with the other. If they are two, cover one with one sauce and one with the other.

Notes

1.- Martino says that the ground almonds can be left to soak for 24 hours to make them whiter and that some water (or rose water) must be added to them after grinding so that they do not “make oil”. See my experiences with almonds below. Back
2.- This recipe just says to “take a capon breast and grind it with the almonds”, but the next one (Manjar blanco a la catalana) specifies that that the breast must be half-cooked, taken apart into hairlike bits and cooked for 4 hours. Back
3.- Rosewater can vary in concentration. Since I don’t know what kind he was using I prefer to just add it to the taste.. Back

Weights: pounds and ounces apparently coincide with modern Amercian/Brittish ones

My experiences

In the beginning of June 99 I tried making a small manjar blanco with:
  • 2 roasted chicken breasts: 1/4 of one for the sauce and the rest for the dish itself (roasted covered with foil so that they would dry-out)
  • some 200 g. (1/2 pound) of almonds: part were factory-ground, part whole and with their peel. I peeled the whole ones by scalding them and removing the peel by hand. After grinding them I tried leaving part to soak for a day but they fermented and I had to throw them... they actually were somewhat whiter but of a similar tome to the factory-ground ones. Perhaps adding some white vinegar to the water would help...
  • 1 squirt white wine vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon of ground root ginger – about half an inch, cubed (1.5 cm3)
  • 2 ounces (50 gr.) white sugar (around 4 tablespoons, not too full)
  • ...I forgot the rosewater!... : (
  • Saffron "threads" (about 2 Carmencita sachets, if anybody knows what I mean)
  • roughly a quarter of an egg-yolk
  • a red apple cut into segments and ...microwaved at the last minute so that they would not darken.

I followed the recipe closely, except that the sauce would not go through the strainer I have (I wonder how big the holes were supposed to be). I served the breasts with the bits of apple around and covered the whole thing with white sauce on one side and yellow sauce on the other.

The result
It had a nice taste, not too sweet and quite delicate, but I am not convinced by the texture (it’s similar to rice-pudding which I have never liked). My human guinea pig liked it without reservations.

March 19th, 2000

New method for the sauce!

A few months ago, I dared try again after convincing myself that the sauce should indeed go through the cloth. I made a tiny manjar (for 1 person) using the proportions above, with 1 chicken breast (350 gramos, 3/4 pound), 100 gr. (3.5 ounces) of almonds, 2 tablespoons of white sugar, etc.

I treated the sauce as if it were an almond milk, processing it until it had a milky consistency. I then strained it through a cloth colander and cooked it for a little while, until it thickened pleasantly.

I roasted the chicken breast in the oven, after having rubbed it with some lard and covered it with some aluminum foil so that it would not get too dry (since it had no skin).

This time it was really nice, since it seems that one flavour complements the other quite well; and the texture was pleasant, more like a conventional sauce. The dish did not feel particularly sweet to the palate, either. 
Success has been since repeated. Try it!
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