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Isinglass Blancmange

A chilled almond blancmange made with isinglass, egg whites, sugar, sweet and bitter almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Isinglass Blancmange

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Boil isinglass in water until reduced to 1 pint.

  2. Add egg whites and water to prevent poaching, then add sugar to taste.

  3. Strain the mixture through a jelly bag.

  4. Scald sweet and bitter almonds in the jelly, then strain through a hair sieve.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a china bowl.

  2. The next day, turn it out and decorate with blanched sweet almonds cut lengthwise.

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 + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Egg + almondtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Isinglass
Sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
Egg whites
Help clarify the jelly, so it strains clear and bright.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to the jelly.
Sweet almonds
Add mild almond flavour and a delicate texture to the jelly.
Bitter almonds
Add a strong almond aroma to the jelly.

The step that matters

Reducing the isinglass to 1 pint. The jelly's firmness depends on its concentration. Too much water left in the liquid leaves the jelly too soft to hold its shape when turned out of the bowl.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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