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Dessert

Lemon Blanc-mange

A chilled lemon-flavored gelatin dessert made with egg whites, sugar, and claret.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Lemon Blanc-mange

Ingredients

Directions

Soak and dissolve

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water for 2 hours.

  2. Whisk the egg whites until stiff.

  3. Add lemon juice, grated peel, sugar, and nutmeg to the soaked gelatine and let it stand for 1 hour.

  4. Pour in the boiling water and stir until clear, then add the wine and strain through a fine cloth.

Fold and set

  1. While cooling, gradually fold the gelatine mixture into the whipped egg whites until stiff.

  2. Pour into a wet mold and refrigerate until set.

Serve

  1. To serve, turn out the blanc-mange and pour a rich liqueur or brandied peach syrup around it.

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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

  4. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable dessert as it cools.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff foam, they give the blancmange a light, airy texture.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the warm gelatine mixture.
Grated lemon peel
Its oils add bright lemon aroma to the dessert.
Claret
Adds wine flavour and depth to the set dessert.

The step that matters

Folding the gelatine into the egg whites while it is cooling. If the gelatine is still too hot, it will deflate the whipped whites. If it is already setting, it will not blend smoothly and will leave lumps. It should be cool, syrupy and still liquid before folding gently.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Parsleyfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, egg, sugar. 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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