Why it works: Corn and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 485 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Almond Corn-starch Blanc-mange
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
In a bowl, mix corn starch with cold milk until smooth.
In a saucepan, heat the milk mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly until it thickens.
Flavor and set
Remove from heat and add the pounded almonds, rose water, bitter almond extract, and powdered sugar.
Pour the mixture into a wet mold and set it in ice to firm up.
Serve chilled with sugar and cream.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Corn + almondtop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together485 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together1,465 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together5,800 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk as it heats, giving the blanc-mange its firm, sliceable body.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens and that sets into the dessert.
- Almonds
- Add nutty flavor and body from the pounded nut pieces suspended in the mixture.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the mixture and dissolves easily into the hot, thickened base.
The step that matters
Stirring while the milk thickens. Starch settles and scorches on the bottom of the pan if not stirred constantly over heat. Lumps form if the starch is not fully blended into cold milk first, so it should be smooth before heating.
“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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