ΑΜΗΣ (MILK PUDDING)

Today's story is dedicated, again, to milk pudding - featuring the earliest sample referenced in Greek historical sources.

Although milk puddings are enjoyed all year round, some versions that flourished in parts of Eurasia were historically made in the spring when farm animals produced the best quality of milk. One such example was junket. In Chapter 22 of Thomas Hardy's Far from the Maddening Crowd (1874), the protagonist Bathsheba Everdene's tenants conclude their labour of sheep-shearing with delicious milk pudding, among other things: "We workfolk shall have some lordly junketing tonight," said Cainy Ball, casting forth his thoughts in a new direction. "This morning I seed 'em making the great puddens in the milking pails - lumps of fat as big as yer thumb, Mister Oak!" 

Likewise, traditional Greek milk pudding (ΓΑΛΑΤΟΠΙΤΑ /ga-la-'to-pi-ta/) is made around the feast of St George in late April as well as for Orthodox Easter and Pentecote. In all probability, this lightly sweetened dessert is the closest equivalent to AMHΣ /'a-mis/, a pudding or custard which is mentioned in Deipnosophistae. (You can find the Greek text here and the English version here.)

 

Front page of the 1657 edition of Deipnosophistae

 

Historical references

A collection of fifteen volumes (whose title roughly means "dining philosophers"), Deipnosophistae is a 3rd century account of the subjects discussed and, more importantly, the edibles consumed in a series of banquets held by a wealthy Roman citizen for his erudite friends. The narrator is Atheneaus from Naucratis, a Greek city in Egypt. Unlike Apicius, the work contains no specific instructions for making the dinners but it's thought of by many as the oldest surviving cookbook.

Ancient Greek and Roman culinary traditions were quite similar, using the same ingredients as they were both cultivated around the Mediterranean. Cato the Elder's De Agri Cultura, dating from the 2nd century BC, gives useful hints as to the kind of desserts, among other recipes, that were particularly favored in both worlds: Roman cheesecakes libum, savillum and the more sophisticated placenta naturally had their equivalents in Greek cuisine. (In fact, AMHΣ was a kind of placenta without 'fyllo', tasting very much like savillum.)

Ingredients & texture

ΠΛΑΚΟΥΣ /pla-'kus/ was a staple in both ancient & Byzantine Greek pastrymaking, a category in itself. There were both sweet and savory versions, with or without 'fyllo', single or multi-layered. Its modern equivalents include not only custards, puddings & flans but also cakes, 'fyllo' pies and tarts. The combinations of ingredients were endless. Cheese was at the top of the list but other dairy products were favored as well. AMHΣ was likely based on milk.  ΠΛΑΚΟΥΣ was sweetened with honey but luxury versions also contained dried fruit. The consistency and texture of the finished preparation varied, depending on the kind of thickener used. We have already seen how libum and savillum recipes used flour while apothermum contained semolina.

The Greek word for starch is ΑΜΥΛΟΝ /'a-mi-lon/. It's composed of two elements, denoting "something which is produced without milling". AMHΣ, or AΜΥΛΙΟΝ /a-'mi-li-on/ in other historical sources, was therefore a pudding whose ingredients were bound with starch. How was starch produced? It was the residue of milled grain that had been washed, strained and dried. Modern adaptations of the historical Greek dish have replaced starch with flour, which is almost exclusively used in traditional milk pudding pies. This is not only because cornstarch, and even rice flour, yields a slightly gelatinous texture. In rural parts of Greece, it was basically a matter of household economy: flour was readily available while starch, a luxury reserved for townspeople.

 

Foreign counterparts

Starch-thickened puddings like AMHΣ were a general favorite in western medieval Europe. The standard thickener for blancmange was rice flour while more extravagant versions were made with ground almonds or chicken breast. Exactly the same recipe and with the same variations was also popular in the Balkans during the Ottoman Turkish era. The original Middle-eastern dessert was, and still is, called muhallebi. It was thickened with rice flour and sprinked with rosewater. Some variations were flavored with mastic, arrowroot etc. while others (called kazandibi) were glazed with burnt sugar. Finally, tavuk göğsü was made with the shreds of chicken breast.

ΑΜΗΤΕΣ, or AMHTIΣΚΟI /a-mi-'tis-ki/ (both in plural, and the latter also in diminutive form) were generally EΓΧΥΤΟΙ /'en-chi-ti/ i.e. shaped in molds. As individual puddings, they sometimes accompanied meat, notably game, so it's probable that ΑΜΗΣ was lightly sweetened - if it was sweetened at all. On the subject of flavor combinations, Antiquity had so much to tell. Sweet, sour and salty were skillfully balanced in all manner of dishes. Think of garum, the popular Roman fish sauce, as well as its less extavagant Greek counterpart, KΑΝΔΑΥΛΟΣ /'kan-dav-los/, that was made with goat's cheese, honey and olive oil. Naturally the case of milk puddings as accompaniment to savory dishes points to Yorkshire puddings that were officially recorded by Hannah Glasse in The Experienced English Housekeeper, 1747.

Whether baked individually or not, AMHTEΣ definitely fell under the category of 'entremets', i.e. little dishes offered between main courses to balance the flavors as well as to entertain the guests. They were a necessary part of both Greek and Roman festive dinners as well as those of western medieval Europe and the Balkans during the Ottoman Turkish era. Blancmange and muhallebi were also served as entremets. Moreover, a rustic version of AMHΣ was likely prepared with coarsely milled grain, such as bulgur. According to certain etympologies, the word AMHΣ was derived from the Greek verb AMAOMAI /a-'ma-o-me/ or AMΩΜΑΙ /a-'mo-me/ which means "to gather". If that was really the case, AMHΣ was a kind of porridge similar to frumenty, a western medieval peasant's dish that was also served between main courses in rich people's houses.

 

AMHΣ (MILK PUDDING)

Given the lack of a recipe in historical sources, the following version of AMHΣ is made from scratch. It yields a lightly sweet accompaniment to savory dishes. For a dessert pudding version, double the amount of honey. I was very tempted to add some kind of flavor in order to make up for the bland taste of cornstarch so I picked goat's butter (which might have been used by ancient Greek chefs).

I n g r e d i e n t s

600ml whole milk

8tbsp (=60g) cornstarch

4 eggs, lightly beaten

4tbsp (=70g) honey

optional:

4tbsp (=60g) goat's butter

 

M e t h o d

Dissolve the cornstarch in very little milk using a saucepan. Add the beaten egg, saving a little for brushing the mixture at a later stage. Combine the ingredients with a spoon, add the rest of the milk and heat very gently. Incorporate the honey and butter (if using), stirring vigorously to prevent any lumps. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 170oC. Divide the warm mixture among four individual ramekins, brush with the leftover egg and bake for 30 minutes. Serve warm.