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Dessert

Blancmange in Eggs

A dessert where a sweet almond and cream blancmange is poured into egg cups and set with a jelly yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Blancmange in Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch the almonds in scalding water, then place them in cold water.

  2. Dry and pound the almonds in a mortar, adding a little rose water as needed.

Make the blancmange

  1. Dissolve the isinglass in warm water and stir it into the cream.

  2. Add the broken loaf sugar and rose water.

  3. Boil for 15 minutes, stirring constantly.

  4. Strain the mixture through a linen bag and pour it into egg cups or trimmed egg shells.

  5. Set aside in a cold place to congeal.

Finish and serve

  1. Once firm, remove a small piece from the center of each cup and replace it with a piece of the prepared jelly to resemble an egg yolk.

  2. If preferred, add the jelly after removing the blancmange from the cups by wetting the molds with warm water.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + rosetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,584 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Isinglass
Sets the cream into a firm, sliceable gel as it cools.
Sweet almonds
Provide the main almond flavour and a rich, creamy body when pounded.
Cream
Forms the rich base that the isinglass sets into a smooth custard.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the mixture and balances the richness of the cream and almonds.

The step that matters

Boil for 15 minutes, stirring constantly. Cream scorches and sticks to the pan when heated for a long time, and the milk solids can burn. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly and keeps the mixture smooth before it is strained and set.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pistachiofits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits less well
  4. Walnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, rose. 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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