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Dessert

Corn Flour Blanc-mange

A custard-like dessert made from corn flour, milk, sugar, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Corn Flour Blanc-mange

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. In a basin, mix 2 ounces of corn flour with a little milk until smooth.

  2. Boil the remaining milk, then strain it over the corn flour while stirring continuously.

  3. Add 1 ounce of castor sugar and pour the mixture into an enamelled saucepan.

Cook and set

  1. Boil for 8 minutes, stirring continually.

  2. Add 3 drops of vanilla flavoring 2 minutes before removing from heat.

  3. Pour the mixture into a cold, damp mold and place it in a cool area.

  4. Once cold, turn it out and 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.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Corn flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth, set blancmange as it cooks and cools.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens into a creamy texture.
Castor sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the flavor of the set dessert.

The step that matters

Boil for 8 minutes, stirring continually. Corn flour starch only thickens fully once it reaches a boil and its granules swell. Constant stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the base of the pan, which would leave the set dessert grainy or burnt-tasting.

“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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