Skip to main content
Dessert

Arrow-root Blancmange

A sweet dessert made from milk, arrowroot, and sugar, set in molds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,800 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Arrow-root Blancmange

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Heat 1 pint of milk in a saucepan until boiling.

  2. Moisten ½ cup of arrow-root with a little cold milk in a bowl.

Make the blancmange

  1. Pour the boiling milk into the arrow-root mixture, stirring continuously.

  2. Return the mixture to the saucepan and boil for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly.

Mould and serve

  1. Dip the moulds in cold water, then pour the mixture into them.

  2. Let it cool, then turn out the blancmange.

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. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

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

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

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

  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

Arrow-root
Thickens the milk as its starch swells and sets to a firm, smooth gel when cooled.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens into a creamy, sliceable set.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the mild, starchy flavour of the set dessert.

The step that matters

Boil the thickened mixture while stirring constantly. Starch only thickens fully once it reaches boiling, and stirring keeps it from settling, scorching or forming lumps. Undercooked starch gives a weak set that may turn runny or grainy when cooled.

Swap the almond

The recipe marks almond as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar):

  1. Cocoafits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Peanutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, 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.

You might also like

Almond Sponge CakeAlmond Sponge Cake26 recipesAlmond CustardAlmond Custard22 recipesAlmond WafersAlmond Wafers22 recipesCoconut Almond CakeCoconut Almond Cake17 recipes