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Dessert

Almond Blanc-mange

A chilled almond dessert made with milk, gelatin, blanched almonds, rose water, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and rose are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,465 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond Blanc-mange

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatine

  1. Soak the gelatin in ½ cup of milk for one hour.

Make the blanc-mange

  1. Heat the remaining milk, then add the almond paste and stir over heat for three minutes.

  2. Add the sugar and soaked gelatin, stirring for five more minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture through thin muslin, pressing hard.

  4. When cool, pour into a wet mold and set in ice or cold water to form.

Serve

  1. Serve with cream and sugar.

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 + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

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

  3. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Rose + sugartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,584 recipes

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

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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the almond and gelatine set within.
Gelatine
Provides the gel structure that lets the blanc-mange hold its shape when chilled.
Blanched almonds
Supply the almond flavour and body of the blanc-mange once pounded and strained.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the flavour of the almonds and milk.

The step that matters

Straining through thin muslin while pressing hard. Pressing forces the pounded almond particles and gel through the cloth, so the mixture becomes smooth rather than grainy. Skipping or rushing this leaves a gritty texture that the gelatine cannot hide.

“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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