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Dessert

Blanc Mange

A chilled dessert made from grated almonds and peach kernels, cream, isinglass, lemon juice, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and peach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 466 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Blanc Mange

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the nuts

  1. Blanch the almonds and peach kernels.

  2. Dry the almonds and peach kernels.

  3. Grate the almonds and peach kernels.

Make the blancmange

  1. Mix the grated nuts with the cream or milk in a pan.

  2. Add the isinglass and lemon juice.

  3. Stir constantly over low heat until the isinglass dissolves.

  4. Stir in the sugar.

  5. Remove any scum that rises.

  6. Strain the mixture through a sieve into a mold.

  7. Chill in the ice until ready to serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Almond + peachtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Peach + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together947 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds
Grated nuts give the blancmange its characteristic almond flavour and fine body.
Peach kernels
Add a bitter almond-like aroma that complements the sweet almonds.
Cream or milk
Provides the liquid base and richness that carries the flavour and sets smooth.
Isinglass
A gelatin-like setting agent that firms the liquid into a sliceable dessert when chilled.
Sugar
Sweetens the dessert and balances the lemon juice.

The step that matters

Stir constantly over low heat until the isinglass dissolves. Isinglass is a collagen-based gelling agent that must fully dissolve without boiling. Overheating or uneven heat can scorch the milk or weaken the set, so constant stirring over low heat keeps the mixture smooth and ensures it firms properly when chilled.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raspberryfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, peach, cream, 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.

More blancmange recipes

Arrowroot 42Rice 24Chocolate 15Cornstarch 14Lemon 14Almond 13 See all 129 →

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