‘A cup of cornflour’ - Agatha Christie

I think I read somewhere that a cornflour tea/soup (as someone described above) was used to settle a dicky stomach.

I have just realised that I must have read this (don't have the book to hand so can't check). I think, when reading it, I would have been surprised if it said 'cornflower'. So I think, especially in view of all the comments, that it is milk thickened with cornflour.
And FannyCornforth glad to have made you smile - pretty certain about the witchy bit - I was grand-daughter to one - and drank her 'teas'!

If it is milk thickened with cornflour you can count me out. It sounds horrible, no matter how good it is supposed to be for you. ?

Blancmange is made with milk, cornflour, sugar and gelatine, so I suppose leaving the gelatine out would give you a milky sweet drink!
I don't think it has anything to do with cornflowers.

I still make chocolate pudding (blancmange) occasionally - dh loves, it, but there’s no gelatine in it, Juggernaut. Just milk, cornflour, sugar and cocoa powder.

@Witzend, I put a small amount of leaf gelatine in mine just to make it a bit firmer.
I make a lovely black forest trifle, but my custard is always rubbish, so that has a bit of gelatine in too, it stops it collapsing as soon as a serving spoon is dug in!

fanny
Were you listening to a podcast or a talking book?
I love Agatha Christie and Joan Hickson is the real and only Miss Marple and would love to listen .

"granzilla* There are sometimes Agatha Christie stories on BBC Sounds.
I've not heard Joan Hickson on there, tho. I agree with you about her.

Although I agree about Joan Hickson, I think June Whitfield's reading on the BBC very good.

Cornflour was made up as an invalid drink, I remember my mum making some up when she had an upset stomach. I think it was just the cornflour and milk a bit like modern custard powder.

Thanks all! This has a been an interesting venture!
Granzilla the books are Audible audiobooks. They are excellent quality considering how old the recordings must be.
I honestly can’t recommend an Audible subscription highly enough. Get a little Echo Dot (they’re only about £30 now) and listen to them on that.
If you have any questions let me know!
There are several June Whitfield Miss Marple versions on there, and also ones by Stephanie Cole and Richard E Grant who are also brilliant too.
I particularly like SC reading At Bertram’s Hotel, and Grant reading The Moving Finger.
Audible has got me through lockdown and some other incredibly tough times.
DH loves it too.

I use cornflour to thicken the gravy. It doesn’t make it thick like blancmange and is still very liquify. I am imagining it in milk and with sugar and vanilla added you probably wouldn’t notice it was there.

I have just seen a nice video on YouTube with a recipe for a chocolate flavoured cornflour drink and was reminded of this old thread.

youtu.be/wAueNTXpn1E

I always gave my children cornflour for an upset tummy. I told them it was white custard and made it the same way as custard with a little bit of sugar. They actually enjoyed it.

Thanks JackyB
I’d forgotten all about this thread!

Not sure if this has already been mentioned but my Granny would swear by cornflour for anyone trying to get over an upset stomach. She said it was very bland and wouldn't aggravate a delicate tummy. She made it up like custard and very nice it was too.

So glad I found this thread! It’s brought back memories of my mother making us custard to drink, she even had special custard glasses which were made of red glass with a handle and shaped like a little mug. If she ever made custard ((always Birds!) that was a little too runny we would pester her to be able to drink it out of the custard glasses.

We never had just cooked cornflour though.

Thinking back to my childhood my mother used to make a sweet white sauce/custard using cornflour, sugar and milk.
We had it every Christmas with the pudding instead of custard.