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Dessert

Lemon Blancmange

A chilled lemon-flavored dessert made with lemon rind, sugar, egg yolks, cream, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Lemon Blancmange

Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓

Lemon Blancmange

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse and dissolve

  1. Combine the lemon rind, cold water or milk, and sugar in a basin.

  2. Let it stand for at least 1 hour.

  3. Dissolve the isinglass or gelatine in ¼ cup of water.

  4. Mix it with the lemon mixture when nearly cold.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks with the thick cream.

  2. Add to the mixture.

  3. Pour the mixture into a jug and place it in a pan of boiling water.

  4. Stir over heat for 10 minutes.

  5. Remove from heat.

Set in a mould

  1. Stir until nearly cold to prevent skinning.

  2. Pour into a wet mould.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  3. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Isinglass or gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly structure as it cools.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream mixture and add richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
Thick cream
Adds fat for a rich, smooth mouthfeel.
Sugar
Sweetens the dish and balances the tartness of the lemon.

The step that matters

Stir until nearly cold to prevent skinning. Egg yolks and cream heated together can form a skin as the mixture cools. Stirring while it cools keeps the surface smooth and prevents the skin from forming before the mould is filled.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, egg, cream. 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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