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Dessert

Date Nut Blanc Mange

A sweet, custard-like dessert made with dates, nuts, egg whites, sugar, and cornstarch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and dates work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 218 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Date Nut Blanc Mange

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Mix the cornstarch, brown sugar, and salt in a bowl.

  2. Add the mixture to the boiling water, stirring constantly until thickened.

  3. Remove from heat and fold in the well-beaten egg whites and vanilla.

  4. If using a kitchen mixer, combine the mixtures and beat until smooth.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the chopped dates and nut meats.

  2. Mold and serve with custard sauce.

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. Vanilla + datestop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together218 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

  3. Sugar + datestop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together985 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Egg + meattop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,432 recipes

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

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

Cornstarch
Thickens the boiling water into a smooth, sliceable set mass.
Egg whites
Whipped into the mixture to give the dessert lightness and airy structure.
Dates
Add chewy texture and natural sweetness to the molded dessert.
Nut meats
Add crunch and a contrasting texture against the soft base.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses flavour that deepens the dessert.

The step that matters

Adding the cornstarch mixture to boiling water. Cornstarch must be stirred constantly in boiling liquid so its starch granules swell evenly and thicken without lumps. Stopping stirring can leave lumps or scorching at the base of the pan.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, vanilla, meat):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, vanilla, meat. 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.

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