Name: Dutch Blanc Mange
Ingredients: 1 ounce isinglass; 1 quart water; 8 egg yolks; wine, to taste; sugar, to taste

Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and 122,807 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Dutch Blanc Mange

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

Dissolve the isinglass in the water.
Boil the mixture until it reduces to 1 pint.
Beat the egg yolks and season them with wine and sugar to taste.
Combine the egg yolks with the isinglass mixture.

Set and serve

Pour the mixture into a mold and refrigerate until set.
Turn out the blanc mange when cold.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Wine + sugartop 31% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together9,581 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Egg + winetop 33% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together6,918 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

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

What each ingredient does

Isinglass: Gelling agent that lets the mixture set into a firm, sliceable shape when chilled.
Egg yolks: Enrich the mixture and add richness and body to the set dessert.

“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.