‘A cup of cornflour’ - Agatha Christie

How intriguing Fanny !
You’ve piqued my interest so I’ll have to look into that now ?

I think she meant cornflower tea, made with the petals of the blue cornflowers. It must be a herbal tea that we have mostly forgotten about.

I too thought a cup of cornflour sounds unpalatable!!! So I am sure MiniMoon you are correct , it was referring to Cornflower tea! Made me smile this morning .

I'd guess it was mixed up in the same way as cornflour pudding, but with more milk to make it drinkable.

I found this :

boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bowl-of-corn-flour-ring-a-bell-uk-readers/938371/6

Still available now, at a price!
www.mr-tea.co.uk/product/cornflower-petals/

I'd guess it was mixed up in the same way as cornflour pudding, but with more milk to make it drinkable.

I found this :

boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bowl-of-corn-flour-ring-a-bell-uk-readers/938371/6

Thanks all!
I hadn’t thought of it being corn flower, sounds more feasible…

But, it was mentioned at least five times, and nobody said tea, just ‘a cup of cornflour/cornflower’

FarNorth wow! Excellent sleuthing
That sounds spot on!

I’ve scrolled down that article that FarNorth linked too, and the story that I heard is mentioned.
It’s called ‘The Tuesday Night Club’, and the word used was ‘cornflour’.

My (German) mother-in-law once suggested I thickened milk for one of the babies with cornflour - it would have been a sort of runny blancmange. I didn't ever do it, but I can imagine this bland but filling, right for babies, and comforting for Agatha's little old spinsters.

My mum used to make me drink arrowroot if I felt sick, or a black coffee/tea with an egg beaten into it. Either made me vomit so I presume that was what she intended! Strange things to do to a child ?

Omg Blue! That sounds utterly, utterly vile!

Jaxjacky

Still available now, at a price!
www.mr-tea.co.uk/product/cornflower-petals/

That looks so pretty, and what an interesting shop!

My mum used to make a cup of cornflower if I had a tummy upset.
Cornflower mixed with hot milk to make a drink with a tiny bit of sugar. It seemed to work.

You can still buy cornflower tea. It’s supposed to be good for rheumatics so quite appropriate I suppose.

FannyC says the text in the book she found (The Tuesday night Club) is cornFLOUR - so it seems we can forget 'tea'.
I'm off to experiment, I'll try it with water and milk, hot and cold and with and without sugar (but forget the raw egg).

Yes, I think it was a bowl of thickened milk. When I learned about 'invalid cookery' we were instructed on making a cup of warm milk thickened with arrowroot as being digestible & acceptable.
I have read a lot of AC and had always assumed that was what was meant.

I had never heard before of cornflowers being used in what I would call a 'tisane' - a herbal infusion. I think it is possible that is what AC meant, but her pharmacy training & WW1 work would, I am sure, have included this thickened milk. My impression is that in England at that era, this thickened milk would have been fairly standard, whilst herbal brews were drunk by foreigners and witches!

We had a thread a month or two back that included historical cookery books and Florence White's Food in England was mentioned. She included instructions on making a 'salep' which was warm milk thickened with iris root - considered a delicacy.

ExDancer gosh, thank you! That’s very helpful of you!
Rose ‘foreigners and witches’! That made me

How strange,my gran would use that term if there was an argument going on.
She would say "put a cup of cornflour on and that will sort it out".apparently it helps heals wounds,never got it then and still don`t get it.

I found a recipe but haven't dared try it yet.
Apparently you slake a teaspoonful (or more) of cornflour in cold milk (as if you were thickening a custard or sauce) . Add vanilla and sugar to taste, then stir it into a pan of boiling milk and whisk like mad.
Can't say I like the sound of it, but Agatha's little old ladies were always getting up in the middle of the night, when they couldn't sleep, to make a cup of warm milk weren't they?

That's how they discovered all the dead bodies lying around.

If you do a google search there are various references. It seems to have come from the The Thirteen Problems/The Saturday Night club

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thirteen_Problems

Yes, that’s the story toscalily

Apparently you slake a teaspoonful (or more) of cornflour in cold milk (as if you were thickening a custard or sauce) . Add vanilla and sugar to taste, then stir it into a pan of boiling milk and whisk like mad.

Quite. It's simply a thin custard (a better description than"runny blancmange" which I said above.)

My mum always made me a bowl of cornflour when I had been to the dentist. It was very comforting - like hot milk.