Name: Blanc-mange
Ingredients: 1 pound almonds; 1 cup loaf sugar; 4 cups milk; 4 egg yolks; 2 tablespoons corn starch; 1 teaspoon vanilla; 4 egg whites; Fruit syrup for serving

Why it works: Almond and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Blanc-mange

Ingredients

Directions

Blanch the almonds and pound them in a mortar with the sugar, adding 2 or 3 almonds and a lump of sugar at a time.
Once finely ground, pour the almond paste into the milk, allowing it to warm gradually.
Beat the egg yolks with the corn starch, salt, and sugar, then stir this mixture into the scalding milk.
Flavor with vanilla and just before removing from heat, stir in the beaten egg whites until frothy.
Pour the mixture into a mold and let it cool.
Serve with fruit syrup poured over the top.

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.

Almond + vanillatop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,961 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Almond + corntop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together485 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

Swap the almond

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

Almondthe original
Chestnutfits about as well
Hazelnutfits about as well
Beansfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, egg, corn, vanilla, syrup. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.