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Arrow-root Blanche- Mange

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Arrow-root Blanche- Mange

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Prepare the arrow-root by mixing it with three times its quantity of water to create a mucilage.

  2. Add milk gradually until the mixture reaches a moderate thickness.

  3. Boil the mixture until it thickens sufficiently.

  4. Pour the mixture into a mold and let it cool to set.

  5. Once set, turn it out of the mold.

  6. Serve with currant jelly, wine, lemon juice and sugar, or cream (avoid cream during convalescence).

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

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

  2. Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Currant + winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,323 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

Swap the currant

The recipe marks currant as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, wine, lemon, sugar, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raspberryfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, wine, lemon, sugar, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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