Name: Corn-starch Blanc-mange
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons corn-starch; 1 pint milk; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; a pinch of salt

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 19,187 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Corn-starch Blanc-mange

Ingredients

2 tablespoons corn-starch
1 pint milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

Directions

Wet the corn-starch with a little of the milk.
In a saucepan, bring the remaining milk to a boil.
Once boiling, add the corn-starch, sugar, and salt.
Stir until the mixture thickens to your taste.
Remove from heat, add vanilla extract, and let cool.
Serve 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.

Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together1,943 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the vanilla

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

Vanillathe original
Coconutabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).