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 ↓
Blanc-mange
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Dissolve corn starch and sugar in 1 pint of milk.
Add beaten eggs and pour into 1 pint of boiling milk, stirring constantly until it boils again.
Flavor to taste, then pour into cups or small molds.
Once cool, remove from molds and place on a glass dish with jelly in the center.
Make the thicker version
For a thicker version, mix 3 tablespoons corn starch with 3 tablespoons reserved milk.
Heat 1 quart milk with a pinch of salt and 5 tablespoons sugar until hot.
Stir in the corn starch mixture until thick, then pour over beaten egg whites.
Add vanilla, pour into wet molds, and set on ice until cold.
Make the custard
For custard, heat 1 pint milk over boiling water, mix 2 teaspoons corn starch with 2 tablespoons cold milk, and beat in 4 egg yolks and 2.5 tablespoons sugar.
When milk is hot, stir in part of the mixture, then return to the basin and stir until thick.
Chill and serve
Chill thoroughly before serving.
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.
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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,943 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk as it heats, giving the blancmange its body and set.
- Eggs
- Egg yolks and whites add richness and help the custard set and thicken.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the starch and eggs thicken and set into a pudding.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the flavour of the milk and eggs.
- Vanilla
- Adds aroma and a warm, familiar flavour to the pudding.
The step that matters
Stir part of the egg mixture into the hot milk. Adding the egg mixture too fast to hot milk can scramble the eggs. Stirring constantly while adding it gently raises the temperature so the custard thickens smoothly.
“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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