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Dessert

Chocolate Blanc-mange

A chocolate custard dessert made with milk, gelatin, chocolate, eggs, sugar, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 the gelatine and milk

  1. Soak the gelatine in ½ cup of milk for 1 hour.

  2. Heat the remaining milk to boiling.

  3. Stir in the dissolved gelatine until fully combined.

Make the custard

  1. Mix the sugar with the beaten egg yolks until smooth.

  2. Add the grated chocolate to the yolk mixture.

  3. Pour the hot milk into the yolk mixture slowly, stirring constantly.

  4. Return the mixture to the saucepan and heat slowly, stirring until it almost boils.

Finish and set

  1. Remove from heat, then fold in the beaten egg whites and vanilla.

  2. Pour into molds and set to form.

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. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

Sugar and vanilla 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 into a firm, sliceable dessert as it cools.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard and whites add lightness when folded in.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the custard and gelatine set in.
Grated chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and richness to the custard base.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the richness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Return the mixture to the saucepan and heat slowly, stirring until it almost boils.. Egg yolks thicken as they warm, but if the custard overheats or boils hard it can curdle and turn grainy. Gentle, constant stirring keeps it 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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