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Lemon Blancmange

A lemon-flavored custard dessert thickened with rice and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Lemon Blancmange

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Lemon Blancmange

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Make a custard with the egg yolks and ½ pint of milk; set aside in a bowl.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the remaining milk, ground rice, butter, lemon rind, and 3 oz. of sugar; boil until thick, stirring constantly.

  3. Pour the thick mixture into the bowl with the custard and mix well.

Set and mould

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in the remaining milk over low heat; boil for 1-2 minutes, then stir into the mixture along with 3 oz. more sugar.

  2. Once cool, stir in the strained lemon juice and pour into a well-oiled mold.

  3. Set the mold in a pan of cold water until ready to serve.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  3. Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

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

  5. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
Ground rice
Thickens the milk mixture so the dessert holds its body.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid so the blancmange holds its shape when turned out.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich, smooth mouthfeel.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and flavour.

The step that matters

Boiling the rice mixture until thick. Ground rice must be boiled while stirring constantly, or it can scorch on the base and turn lumpy. It needs to thicken fully so the mixture sets properly when combined and chilled.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, rice, sugar, butter):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, rice, sugar, butter. 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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