Why it works: Milk and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,346 recipes. Both carry sabinene, which smells woody, terpenic. The science ↓
Arrow Root Blanc-mange
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the arrowroot
Take a tea-cup full of arrow root, put it into a large bowl, and dissolve it in a little cold water.
When it is melted, pour off the water, and let the arrow root remain undisturbed.
Make the custard
Boil in half a pint of unskimmed milk, (made very sweet with white sugar,) a beaten nutmeg, and eight or nine blades of mace, mixed with the juice and grated peel of a lemon.
When it has boiled long enough to be highly flavoured, strain it into a pint and a half of very rich milk or cream, and add a quarter of a pound of sugar.
Boil the whole for ten minutes; then strain it, boiling hot, over the arrow root.
Set
Stir it well and frequently till cold; then put it into moulds and let it set to congeal.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 2 of 3 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Mace | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
-
Milk + macetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,346 recipes
Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).
-
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Sugar + macetop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,096 recipes
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Arrow root (in the method)
- Thickens the milk into a smooth, set blanc-mange as it cools.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base that the starch thickens into a creamy custard.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps balance the warm spice flavours.
- Lemon (in the method)
- Adds acidity and bright aroma to the spiced milk.
The step that matters
Stir well and frequently while cooling. Arrowroot starch settles and can form a skin or lumps as it cools. Frequent stirring keeps the starch dispersed so the set is smooth and even.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Gingerfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar. 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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