Skip to main content
Dessert

Cornstarch Blanc Mange

A custard made from sweet milk, cornstarch, sugar, fruit juice, and egg whites, served with cream and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Cornstarch Blanc Mange

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat 1 pint of sweet milk in a saucepan.

  2. In another pint of cold milk, mix cornstarch and sugar until smooth.

  3. Once the milk is hot, pour in the cold milk mixture and stir until thick and lump‑free.

  4. Flavor with lemon.

  5. Remove from heat.

  6. Beat the whites of 3 eggs to stiff peaks.

  7. Fold the beaten egg whites into the mixture.

Make the fruit sauce

  1. Strain the juice from the fruit.

  2. Sweeten the fruit juice to taste.

  3. Heat the fruit juice in a double boiler until boiling.

  4. Stir in cornstarch mixed with a little cold water, using 2 tablespoons of cornstarch for each pint of juice.

  5. Continue stirring until cooked.

Mold and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into molds wet with cold water.

  2. Let the molds cool.

  3. 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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  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

Cornstarch
Thickens the milk and juice into a smooth, set mixture as it cooks.
Eggs (in the method)
Whites beaten to stiff peaks add lightness and a delicate airy texture.
Sweet milk
Forms the creamy base of the blanc mange.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the flavor.
Fruit juice
Adds fruit flavor and color to the sauce served with the set custard.

The step that matters

Stirring the custard until thick. Cornstarch must be stirred continuously while the milk is hot so it swells and thickens evenly. If it sits or is under-stirred, lumps form and the starch never fully gelatinizes, leaving a grainy texture.

“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.

More cornstarch blanc recipes

Mange 3

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes