Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and 6,955 recipes mention both. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Corn-starch Blanc Mange
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cornstarch base
Heat 1 pint of milk in a saucepan.
In a bowl, mix 4 heaping tablespoons of corn-starch and ½ cup of sugar with the remaining pint of cold milk.
Once the milk is hot, pour in the cold milk mixture and stir until thick and smooth.
Add lemon juice for flavor.
Remove from heat and fold in 3 beaten egg whites until well combined.
Make the custard
For the custard, boil 1 pint of milk with a little salt.
In a bowl, beat 3 egg yolks with ½ cup of sugar, then add to the boiling milk.
Stir well but do not let it boil after adding the eggs; flavor to taste.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,927 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon share little aroma chemistry, yet 53,532 recipes mention both: they likely 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
- Corn-starch
- Thickens the milk into a smooth, set cream as it heats.
- Egg whites
- Folded in at the end to lighten the texture of the cream.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the custard and help it thicken and turn creamy when heated gently.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of both the cornstarch cream and the custard.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dish and adds body to the mixture.
The step that matters
Do not let the custard boil after adding the eggs. Egg yolks scramble and curdle when overheated, leaving a grainy texture. Gentle heat lets them thicken the custard smoothly.
Flavor stand-ins for the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, corn, sugar, egg):
- Vanillabetter flavor fit
- Coconutbetter flavor fit
- Figbetter flavor fit
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, corn, sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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