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Dessert

Chocolate Blanc-mange

Chocolate blanc-mange is a chilled dessert made from milk, chocolate, gelatin, 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 milk

  1. Grate the chocolate and stir it into the milk.

  2. Place the milk in a double boiler or a pail set in a kettle of hot water.

  3. Cover tightly and boil for one hour, stirring often.

Make the blanc-mange

  1. Divide the gelatine in half and place it in the cold water to melt for 15 minutes.

  2. After boiling, add the dissolved gelatine and sugar to the milk mixture and cook for 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally.

  3. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a wet mold.

  4. When nearly cold, add the vanilla extract.

  5. Skim off any oily substance that rises to the top two or three times over the next hour.

  6. Set the pudding in a cool place overnight, or in the ice chest if it's summer.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, turn the blanc-mange out onto a small platter.

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. Vanilla + chocolatetop 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 + chocolatetop 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).

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

Milk
Forms the liquid base and, with the gelatine, the body of the set pudding.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable pudding as it cools.
Grated chocolate
Gives the pudding its chocolate flavour and colour.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Skim off the oily substance while cooling. Chocolate releases fat as it heats and cools, and this oily film rises to the surface. Skimming it removes the fat so the set pudding has a smooth, clean texture rather than a greasy surface.

“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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