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Dessert

A Richer Blancmange

A sweet milk pudding made with isinglass, lemon rind, spices, almonds, sugar, rosewater, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

A Richer Blancmange

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Simmer the isinglass in the milk with lemon rind, cinnamon, and mace until dissolved.

  2. Sweeten the mixture with loaf sugar.

  3. Blend the sweet and bitter almonds with rosewater, then mix into the milk.

  4. Strain the mixture through a linen sieve or new flannel into a bowl.

Finish and set

  1. Stir in the rich cream thoroughly.

  2. Let it stand for an hour, then pour off into another basin, leaving sediment behind.

  3. When nearly cold, pour into molds.

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. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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, wobbly jelly as it cools.
Milk
Forms the main liquid body and carries the flavour of the dish.
Rich cream
Adds fat for a softer, smoother, richer texture.
Sweet almonds
Contribute nutty flavour and body to the milk base.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the blancmange and balances its flavour.

The step that matters

Pour off the clear liquid after standing. Letting the mixture stand and then pouring off the top leaves the sediment of almond and spice solids behind. Disturbing the bottom would cloud the set blancmange and add grittiness.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, lemon, cinnamon, sugar, almond, cream. 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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