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Dessert

Peptonised Blancmange

A dessert made by peptonising milk, adding gelatin, cream, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Peptonised Blancmange

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the milk

  1. Peptonise the milk by the ordinary recipe.

  2. Bring the milk to a boil and strain it into a basin.

Make the blancmange

  1. Add the gelatine immediately and stir until dissolved.

  2. Then add the cream and mix well.

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. Cream + sugartop 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

Peptonised milk
Forms the liquid base that the gelatine and cream set into.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a soft, wobbly structure as it cools.
Cream
Adds fat for a smoother, richer texture and softer mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the milk.

The step that matters

Dissolving the gelatine while the milk is hot. Gelatine must dissolve fully in the hot milk straight after straining. Undissolved gelatine leaves specks or weak spots, and uneven setting results in a blancmange that is not smooth.

“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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