Why it works: Milk and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and 77,875 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Corn Starch Blanc-mange
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
In a double saucepan, bring 2 cups of milk to a boil.
In a separate bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with ½ cup of milk and 1 tablespoon of sugar.
Stir the cornstarch mixture into the boiling milk continuously.
Boil for 5 minutes or until fully cooked, ensuring it doesn't get too thick initially.
Set and serve
Pour the mixture into a mold and let it set.
Serve with boiled custard or cream.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar share little aroma chemistry, yet 77,875 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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that cornstarch thickens into a smooth, creamy pudding.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the milk as it heats, setting the pudding so it holds its shape when cooled.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to the pudding.
The step that matters
Stirring the cornstarch mixture into the boiling milk. Cornstarch clumps if it hits hot liquid unevenly or is not stirred. Constant stirring disperses the starch so the pudding thickens smoothly rather than becoming lumpy.
“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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