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Dessert

Blancmange

A milk and almond dessert thickened with isinglass, flavored with lemon rind, cinnamon, mace, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

Make the milk base

  1. Boil the milk slowly in a saucepan.

  2. Dissolve the isinglass in a tea-cup of water over low heat.

  3. Add the dissolved isinglass, lemon rind, cinnamon, mace, and sugar to the milk.

  4. Blanch the almonds with a little rose or orange-flower water until fine.

  5. Pound the blanched almonds until fine.

  6. Mix the powdered almonds with the milk.

Strain and set

  1. Strain the mixture through a napkin into a basin.

  2. Stir in the cream.

  3. Warm the mixture gently.

  4. Let it sit for 30 minutes to allow sediment to settle.

  5. Pour the mixture into molds.

  6. Let the molds cool.

Turn out and serve

  1. Dip the mold briefly in warm water.

  2. Loosen the edges of the mold.

  3. Turn the dessert out onto a dish.

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. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Isinglass
Sets the liquid milk mixture into a firm, wobbly blancmange when cooled.
Cow's or buffalo milk
Forms the main liquid base that the dessert is built on and sets.
Sweet almonds
Provide the nutty almond flavour and body through the pounded almond mixture.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, soft texture to the set dessert.
Pounded sugar
Sweetens the dessert and balances the almond and spice flavours.

The step that matters

Strain the mixture through a napkin. Straining removes the pounded almond particles and any remaining solids, so the set blancmange is smooth rather than grainy. Letting it settle afterward allows fine sediment to drop out before molding.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against buffalo, 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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