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Dessert

Cornstarch Blanc Mange

A milk-based dessert thickened with cornstarch and flavored with chocolate and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,404 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cornstarch Blanc Mange

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate mixture

  1. Scald the milk in a double boiler.

  2. In a small saucepan, mix the sugar, salt, and chocolate; moisten with hot water and stir over heat until smooth.

  3. Add the chocolate mixture to the hot milk.

Thicken and serve

  1. Mix the cornstarch with a little cold milk and add it to the other ingredients.

  2. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring constantly, until smooth and thick.

  3. Pour into molds and serve with cold 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. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 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 liquid base that the cornstarch thickens into a smooth custard.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk as it heats, setting the dessert into a firm, sliceable shape.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the flavor of the chocolate and milk.
Grated chocolate
Gives the dessert its chocolate flavor and color.

The step that matters

Cooking the cornstarch mixture while stirring constantly. Cornstarch thickens only when heated, and it can scorch on the bottom or form lumps if it sits still or is added without being smoothed first. Constant stirring keeps heat even and starch granules dispersed, so the mixture thickens evenly into a smooth blanc mange.

“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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