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Dessert

Dutch Blancmange

A gelatin dessert made from calf's feet jelly, egg yolks, citrus juices, wine, spices, and egg whites, set in molds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and coriander match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,498 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Dutch Blancmange

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Mix the warm cleared calf's feet jelly with the egg yolks in a stewpan.

  2. Heat over a fire, whisking until it begins to boil.

  3. Remove from heat and place the pan in cold water, stirring until nearly cold to prevent curdling.

Set and serve

  1. When the mixture starts to thicken, fill the shapes.

  2. To serve, dip the shapes in warm water.

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. Lemon + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,498 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Cinnamon + coriandertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,635 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's feet jelly
Provides gelatin that thickens the mixture as it cools and sets it firm.
Egg yolks
Thicken the mixture into a custard and add richness and colour.

The step that matters

Stirring until nearly cold after heating. Egg yolks curdle if they overheat or cool unevenly. Removing the pan from the heat and stirring it in cold water brings the temperature down gently, keeping the custard smooth before it sets in the shapes.

Swap the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, lemon, orange, white wine, sugar, cinnamon):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, lemon, orange, white wine, sugar, cinnamon. 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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