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Dessert

Fruit Blanc Mange

A gelatin-based custard with stewed fruit, served chilled with cream and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Fruit Blanc Mange

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatin in the milk for 1 hour.

  2. Heat the milk on the fire, stirring often.

  3. Beat the egg yolk with the sugar until light.

Make the custard

  1. Stir the egg mixture into the scalding milk and heat until it thickens, but do not boil.

  2. Remove from heat and let it cool slightly.

  3. Stir in the stewed fruit without juice.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into molds that have been wet with cold water and set aside to cool.

  2. Serve with cream and sugar.

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 + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

Milk
Forms the base of the custard and sets to a creamy body with the gelatine.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid mixture so it holds its shape when cooled.
Egg yolk
Thickens the milk into a custard and adds richness.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the fruit.
Stewed fruit
Adds fruit flavour, colour and a soft texture to the set dessert.

The step that matters

Stir the egg mixture into the scalding milk and heat until it thickens, but do not boil.. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set with gentle heat; boiling can curdle the custard and leave it grainy, and the thickening is what gives the set dessert its body.

“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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