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Dessert

Almond Blanc Mange

A custard dessert made with milk, ground almonds, peach kernels, sugar, corn starch, egg whites, yolks, vanilla, and sherry or brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Peach and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 558 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Almond Blanc Mange

Ingredients

Directions

Make the almond custard

  1. Combine milk, ground almonds, peach kernels, and sugar in a porcelain saucepan, then place it in a second pan with boiling water.

  2. Once it boils, mix corn starch with a little cold milk and stir it in; cook for 3 minutes, then remove from heat to cool slightly.

  3. Beat egg whites with 1 tablespoon sugar until stiff; gently fold them into the cooled mixture.

  4. Pour mixture into a porcelain mold that has been dipped in cold water; let it cool and then turn it out.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, combine 1 pint of milk and 4 ounces of sugar in a saucepan over boiling water.

  2. Mix 1 teaspoon corn starch with a little cold milk and stir it in; cook for 3 minutes.

  3. Beat egg yolks and stir them into the mixture, cooking until it thickens but does not boil.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and sherry or brandy.

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. Peach + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together558 recipes

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

  2. Almond + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Almond + peachtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together466 recipes

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

  4. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Almond + corntop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together485 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds
Provide the main almond flavour and body to the custard.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk mixture so the custard sets firm when cooled.
Egg whites
Beaten and folded in to lighten the custard and add airy structure.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce and add richness and smooth texture.
Sweet milk
Forms the liquid base of both the custard and the sauce.

The step that matters

Cooking the egg yolks into the sauce. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but if the sauce boils or overheats it can curdle or turn grainy. Keeping it just below boiling gives a smooth, thickened sauce.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, peach, sugar, corn, egg, sauce, vanilla):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Beansfits less well
  4. Hazelnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, peach, sugar, corn, egg, sauce, vanilla. 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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