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Dessert

Chocolate Blanc Mange

A chilled chocolate mousse made with gelatin, milk, sugar, eggs, chocolate, vanilla, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate Blanc Mange

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatine

  1. Soak the gelatine in a little cold water for 1 hour.

Make the mousse base

  1. Heat the milk to boiling, then add the gelatine and stir until dissolved.

  2. Add the sugar and well-beaten egg yolks, stirring in the chocolate until smooth.

  3. Remove from heat and gently fold in the beaten egg whites and vanilla.

Set

  1. Pour into moulds that have been wet with cold water.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the liquid mousse into a soft, sliceable structure as it cools.
Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the base, and whipped whites add lightness and airy texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the chocolate, sugar and gelatine are dissolved into.
Grated chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and helps give the mousse its body.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a light, creamy texture to the finished mousse.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air only when whipped well; folding gently keeps that air from deflating, which is what makes the mousse light. Stirring vigorously knocks the air out.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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