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Dessert

Chocolate Blanc Mange

A chilled chocolate mousse made with milk, gelatin, eggs, sugar, and chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate Blanc Mange

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Reserve 1 cup of milk from the quart and soak the gelatin in it.

  2. Dissolve the grated chocolate in a little warm milk.

  3. Beat the egg whites and yolks separately.

Make the mousse

  1. Combine the egg yolks with the sugar and the dissolved chocolate.

  2. Add the soaked gelatin and reserved milk to the mixture.

  3. Flavor with vanilla extract and mix well.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Egg whites and yolks are beaten to add air and richness to the mousse.
Gelatin
Sets the liquid mixture so the mousse holds its shape.
Milk
Provides the liquid that dissolves the chocolate and gelatin and adds creaminess.
Sugar
Sweetens the mousse and combines with the yolks.
Grated chocolate
Adds flavor and is dissolved into warm milk for the base.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites and yolks separately. Whites must be beaten until they form stable foam so the mousse stays light. Yolks are kept apart from the whites so they can be folded in without deflating the foam.

“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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