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Dessert

Almond Blancmange

A sweet almond dessert made by blending almonds with milk and isinglass, then setting in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and rose are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,465 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond Blancmange

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the isinglass in cold water until soft.

  2. Blanch the almonds, then pound them very fine in a mortar with a little rose-water.

Make the blancmange

  1. In a saucepan, heat the milk until warm, then stir in the pounded almonds and isinglass until dissolved.

  2. Strain the mixture to remove solids and sweeten to taste.

  3. Pour into a mold and let it cool until set.

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Rose + sugartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,584 recipes

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Isinglass
Sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly gel as it cools.
Almonds
Provide the main flavour and body, thickening the milk with fine solids.
New milk
Forms the liquid base that the gel sets in.
Sugar
Sweetens the finished blancmange.

The step that matters

Pound the almonds very fine. Fine pounding breaks the almond cells and releases oils and starch so the blancmange is smooth rather than gritty. Coarse pieces stay in the set gel and feel unpleasant in the mouth.

“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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