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Dessert

Currant Blanc-mange

A chilled dessert made from currant juice, sugar, isinglass, and thick cold cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Currant Blanc-mange

Ingredients

Directions

Make the blancmange

  1. In three-quarters of a pint of clear currant-juice, drawn from the fruit as for jelly, and strained, dissolve an ounce and a half of isinglass.

  2. Add nine ounces of sugar broken small, give the whole a boil.

  3. Strain it, and stir it by slow degrees to three-quarters of a pint of thick cold cream.

  4. When it is less than milk-warm pour it into the moulds.

Optional additions

  1. Add a portion of raspberries or strawberries to the currants, if desired.

  2. Consider using black currants for a different flavor, if desired.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

100Calories
0 gProtein
5 gFat
13 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Sugar + curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,256 recipes
  3. Currant + creamtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,829 recipes

Sugar and currant barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,256 recipes: they 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

Isinglass (in the method)
Sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly body as it cools.
Thick cold cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the set dessert.
Sugar
Sweetens the blancmange and balances the tartness of the currant juice.
Currant juice
Provides the main flavor and liquid base of the dessert.

The step that matters

Stirring in the cream. Cold cream added to hot liquid must be stirred in slowly so it blends smoothly rather than curdling or forming lumps. Pouring while the mixture is still too hot can also stop the isinglass from setting properly.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream):

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

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

“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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