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Dessert

Lemon Blanc-mange

A chilled lemon 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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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 Blanc-mange

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Make a custard with the egg yolks and 1 quart of milk.

  2. Combine half of the remaining milk, ground rice, butter, lemon rind, and 3 oz. of sugar.

  3. Boil the mixture until thick, stirring constantly.

  4. Pour the thick mixture into the custard. Mix well.

Add the gelatine and set

  1. Combine gelatine and the rest of the milk.

  2. Let the mixture sit to dissolve.

  3. Boil the mixture for 1-2 minutes.

  4. Stir the gelatine mixture into the custard mixture.

  5. Add 3 oz. more sugar.

  6. Once cool, stir in the strained lemon juice.

  7. Pour the mixture into a well-oiled mold, discarding the lemon peel.

  8. 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.

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
Enrich the custard and give it a rich, smooth set.
Ground rice
Thickens the milk mixture so it holds its shape when cooled.
Gelatine
Sets the dessert into a firm, sliceable shape as it cools.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the dessert and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright lemon flavor to the creamy base.

The step that matters

Stir the thick mixture into the custard and mix well. Adding a hot, thick starch mixture to egg yolks can scramble them if added too fast. Mixing thoroughly keeps the custard smooth and evenly thickened.

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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