a French and to some extent international culinary term indicating a dish of white meat (veal, poultry, also lamb) served in a white sauce which masks it. The meat is usually cooked in a fond blanc (‘white’, i.e. uncoloured, stock) which is then used as the basis of the sauce.
The Old French blanchet came into English as blanket, i.e. white woollen cloth, but this has nothing to do with blanquette, even if everything ultimately derives from blanc. In the English kitchen you find, for example, ‘pig in a blanket’, where the blanket is of batter.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
