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Lemon Blanc Mange

A chilled lemon gelatin dessert made with gelatine, lemon juice, sugar, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Coffee and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,344 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Lemon Blanc Mange

Ingredients

Directions

Make the lemon mixture

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in boiling water.

  2. Add lemon juice and sugar, mixing well.

  3. Let the mixture cool slightly, then pour it over the beaten egg yolks.

Set and serve

  1. Mix thoroughly and refrigerate until set.

  2. Serve chilled.

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. Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + coffeetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together578 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 body as it chills.
Egg yolks
Add richness and thicken the mixture, giving it a creamy texture.
Lemon juice
Provides acidity and bright lemon flavour that balances the sugar.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.

The step that matters

Letting the mixture cool slightly before pouring it over the egg yolks. Hot liquid poured quickly onto egg yolks can cook and scramble them into lumps. Cooling the mixture slightly and mixing thoroughly helps the yolks blend in smoothly and keeps the texture silky.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

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