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Dessert

Blancmange

A gelatin-based dessert made with milk, almonds, lemon rind, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Blancmange

Why it works: Almond and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Blancmange

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatine in ¼ pint of milk for 1 hour.

  2. Blanch the bitter and sweet almonds.

  3. Combine the almonds and lemon rind with 1¼ pints of milk and let it sit for 2 hours.

Make the blancmange

  1. Pour the milk mixture into a saucepan and add loaf sugar.

  2. Boil the milk.

  3. Pour the boiled milk over the soaked gelatine.

  4. Strain the mixture into a jug.

  5. Stir occasionally until the mixture cools.

Set

  1. Pour the blancmange into a damp mold and let it set.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base that gives the blancmange its body.
Bitter almonds
Contribute the characteristic almond aroma and flavour.
Sweet almonds
Add nutty flavour and a smooth, rich mouthfeel to the milk.
Lemon rind
Adds a bright aromatic note that lifts the almond flavour.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness, balancing the almond flavour.

The step that matters

Pour the boiled milk over the soaked gelatine. Gelatine only sets when fully dissolved in hot liquid. The boiled milk must be hot enough to melt the softened gelatine completely, or lumps and weak setting can result once the mixture cools.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, lemon, sugar):

  1. Milletfits about as well
  2. Pistachiofits about as well
  3. Chickpeafits about as well
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, lemon, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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