Skip to main content
Dessert

Blanc Mange

A chilled almond and citrus custard thickened with isinglass and optionally flavored with ratafia or brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cinnamon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,514 recipes mention both. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Blanc Mange

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Soak the isinglass in a saucepan with ½ pint of water and simmer until dissolved.

  2. Strain the dissolved isinglass into another saucepan containing 1 pint of cream, 1 pint of milk, lemon peel, cinnamon, and sugar.

Make the almond milk

  1. Blanch the sweet and bitter almonds, then pound them finely in a mortar, adding a little water to keep them white.

  2. Once finely ground, add the almonds to the milk and cream mixture.

  3. Heat the mixture on the stove and boil for about 15 minutes, then strain it through a fine sieve.

Finish and set

  1. When the mixture is half cold, stir in 1 tablespoon of ratafia or a glass of brandy if desired.

  2. When it begins to thicken, pour it into a mold.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar share little aroma chemistry, yet 30,779 recipes mention both: they likely 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

Isinglass
Gelatin-like setting agent that makes the cooled mixture firm and sliceable.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the set dessert a smooth, creamy texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that sets into a soft, delicate custard-like body.
Sweet almonds
Provide the main almond flavour and body once pounded and strained into the liquid.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the cream and almonds.

The step that matters

Pouring into the mold as it thickens. Isinglass sets as the mixture cools, so pouring too early can leave it runny and pouring too late can leave it lumpy or hard to fill the mold evenly. Timing the pour as it begins to thicken lets it set firm yet still shape cleanly.

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, milk, cinnamon, sugar, almond, brandy):

  1. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  2. Raisinbetter flavor fit
  3. Figbetter flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, milk, cinnamon, sugar, almond, brandy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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 blanc-mange recipes

Arrowroot 17Rice 15Almond 13Chocolate 11Fruit 9Irish Moss 9 See all 90 →

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesCinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipes