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Dessert

Levion Blancmange

A lemon custard made with sugar, isinglass, egg yolks, and cream, set in a mold.

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 ↓

Levion Blancmange

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Rub the rind of the lemons onto the sugar and add the juice.

  2. Dissolve the isinglass in the water and strain it when lukewarm over the lemon and sugar, stirring well.

  3. Beat the egg yolks with the cream and mix everything together in a bowl.

Cook and set

  1. Place the bowl in a pan of boiling water and stir for 5 minutes, then continue stirring until nearly cool.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a damp mould and let it set.

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. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness to the set dessert.
Isinglass
Gelatin-like setting agent that firms the mixture as it cools.
Cream
Adds fat for a smooth, soft texture and a rich mouthfeel.
Sugar
Sweetens the dessert and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
Lemons
Provide acidity and fragrant oils from the rind and juice.

The step that matters

Stirring over boiling water. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently, but too much heat can curdle them. Keep the bowl over simmering water, not boiling directly, and stir steadily so the custard thickens smoothly before it cools and sets.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Strawberryfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, 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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