Why it works: Almond and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Almond Blanc-Manger
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the almond milk
Blanch and peel the sweet and bitter almonds.
Pound the almonds in a mortar with rosewater to form a paste.
Mix the paste with 1 pint of water until it becomes milky. Let it stand for an hour, then strain through a fine sieve into a basin.
Make the gelatine mixture
In a stewpan, combine the gelatin, sugar, and 1 pint of water. Stir over the fire until the gelatin is melted, then strain through a fine sieve.
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.
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Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sweet almonds
- Provide the main body and flavour of the milk-like base once pounded and steeped in water.
- Bitter almonds
- Add a sharp, aromatic almond note that balances the sweetness of the dish.
- Gelatine
- Sets the strained almond milk into a firm, sliceable blanc-manger when cooled.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dish and balances the almond flavour.
The step that matters
Stir the gelatine until fully melted. Gelatine must dissolve completely over gentle heat before straining; undissolved granules leave specks and weak spots, and overheating can reduce its setting strength.
“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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