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Dessert

Prune Blanc Mange

A custard-like dessert made with prunes, milk, cornstarch, honey, and vanilla, set in molds and chilled.

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 ↓

Prune Blanc Mange

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the cornstarch in cold milk.

  2. Add the hot milk, salt, and syrup or honey, and bring to a boil.

  3. Finish cooking in a double boiler.

  4. Add the prunes, cut into small pieces, 5 minutes before removing from heat.

  5. Remove from heat, add the vanilla, pour into molds, and chill.

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. Syrup + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Syrup + milktop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,143 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cornstarch
Thickens the milk into a smooth, set custard as it cooks and cools.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the blanc mange and adds richness.
Prunes
Add fruity flavour, sweetness, and a soft texture to the set dessert.
Syrup or honey
Adds sweetness and a mellow flavour to the custard.

The step that matters

Cooking the cornstarch mixture fully. Cornstarch only thickens fully when the mixture has been heated until it bubbles and the starch granules swell. Stopping early leaves a thin, grainy custard that will not set firmly when chilled.

“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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