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Dessert

Blancmange

A chilled almond-based dessert made from milk, sugar, and almond paste, set with cream and served with orange slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Blancmange

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 ↓

Blancmange

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch the bitter and sweet almonds.

  2. Pound the blanched almonds with rose water until fine.

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk with isinglass, lemon rind, cinnamon, mace, and lump sugar for a few minutes.

  2. Mix the almond paste with the milk mixture.

  3. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a basin.

  4. Add the cream.

  5. Let the mixture stand for 30 minutes.

  6. Pour the mixture into another basin, leaving sediment behind.

Set and serve

  1. When nearly cold, fill the mixture into molds.

  2. Run your finger around the mold.

  3. Pull out the blancmange.

  4. Garnish with orange slices.

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. 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
Gelatin-like setting agent that firms the milk mixture as it cools.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the almonds, cream and sugar are suspended in.
Cream
Adds richness and a softer, smoother texture to the set dessert.
Lump sugar
Sweetens the dessert and helps balance the almond flavour.
Sweet almonds
Contribute nutty flavour and body through the pounded almond paste.
Bitter almonds
Add a concentrated almond aroma to the pounded almond paste.

The step that matters

Pouring off the mixture before it sets. Straining and then leaving sediment behind removes fine almond and isinglass particles that would make the set blancmange cloudy and gritty. Letting it stand lets solids settle, so pour gently and leave the bottom of the basin undisturbed.

Swap the mace

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

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

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