Skip to main content
Dessert

Blanc-mange

A chilled dessert made from gelatin, almonds, milk, cream, lemon, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Blanc-mange

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Combine isinglass, almonds, milk, cream, lemon juice, lemon peel, and sugar in a clean saucepan.

  2. Heat over medium heat, stirring until the gelatine dissolves.

  3. Remove from heat and stir until nearly cool.

Set and finish

  1. Pour into a quart mold or adjust for a smaller mold.

  2. Color the top with cochineal.

  3. Allow to cool.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  5. Almond + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Isinglass or gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable dessert as it cools.
Sweet almonds
Add nutty flavour and a creamy, opaque body to the mixture.
Milk
Forms the main liquid base and gives the dessert its soft, creamy body.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving a smoother, silkier texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and balances the cream.

The step that matters

Remove from heat and stir until nearly cool. If the mixture is still very hot when poured, it can delay setting or weaken the gel. If it cools too far before pouring, it may begin to set unevenly in the pan. Stirring while it cools keeps it smooth and evenly thickened before it goes into the mold.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, milk, 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 →

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesLemon CustardLemon Custard64 recipes