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Dessert

Chocolate Blanc Mange

A chilled chocolate dessert made with milk, gelatin, eggs, and grated chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate Blanc Mange

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatin in 1 cup of water.

  2. Heat the milk in a saucepan until boiling.

  3. Rub the grated chocolate smooth in a little milk.

Make the mousse

  1. Add the chocolate mixture to the boiling milk.

  2. Add the soaked gelatin and stir until dissolved.

  3. Beat the eggs, then add them along with vanilla to the mixture.

  4. Boil for 5 minutes.

  5. Pour the mixture into a mold.

Serve

  1. Serve cold with sugar and cream or custard.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

Vanilla and sugar 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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the liquid mixture so it holds its shape when chilled.
Eggs
Add richness and help thicken the mixture as they are beaten in.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the mousse.
Grated chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and some body to the mixture.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten eggs. Eggs can scramble or curdle if they meet very hot liquid too quickly. Stirring steadily while adding them keeps the custard smooth.

“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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