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Dessert

Apricot Blanc-mange, or CRèME Parisienne

A custard dessert made with isinglass, milk, sugar, cream, apricot jam, and optional lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓

Apricot Blanc-mange, or CRèME Parisienne

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Dissolve the isinglass in the milk or thin cream and strain it through muslin. In a clean saucepan, combine the strained mixture with the sugar and bring to a boil. Stir in the rich cream gradually, starting with small amounts.

Add the jam and set

  1. Mix the cream mixture smoothly with the apricot jam until nearly cold to prevent sinking. Add lemon juice for improved flavor, if desired.

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

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

  2. Milk + apricottop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together826 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Apricot + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,098 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Fine isinglass
Sets the liquid into a delicate, wobbly structure as it cools.
New milk or thin cream
Forms the liquid base in which the isinglass dissolves.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the fruit flavor.
Rich cream
Adds fat for a smooth, rich, creamy texture.
Apricot jam
Adds apricot flavor, colour and fruit pieces to the set dessert.

The step that matters

Mix in the jam when nearly cold. Adding the jam while the mixture is only nearly cold keeps the fruit suspended. If it is still warm and thin, the jam will sink to the bottom as the blancmange sets.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, cream, apricot. 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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