Skip to main content
Dessert

Dutch Blancmange

A Dutch dessert made from isinglass, egg yolks, wine, lemon, cinnamon, and sugar, set in a mold and chilled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Lemon and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Dutch Blancmange

Ingredients

Directions

Make the isinglass base

  1. Wash the isinglass.

  2. Pour boiling water over it.

  3. Let it stand for 1 hour.

  4. Boil for 20 minutes.

  5. Strain the mixture.

  6. Let it cool slightly.

Make the blancmange

  1. Add the beaten egg yolks, Lisbon wine, lemon peel, lemon juice, cinnamon, and sugar.

  2. Stir over low heat until it simmers, but do not boil.

  3. Remove the peel and cinnamon.

  4. Pour into a basin.

  5. Stir until nearly cold.

  6. Pour into a mold.

  7. Refrigerate overnight before serving.

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. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Wine + cinnamontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,170 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

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

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
Gelatinous setting agent that gives the blancmange its firm, sliceable body.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the custard while adding richness and a smooth texture.
Lisbon wine
Adds liquid, sweetness and wine flavour to the set custard.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sugar.
Sugar
Sweetens the dish and balances the acidity of the lemon and wine.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat until it simmers, but do not boil. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat and curdle or turn grainy if overheated, so keeping the mixture just below boiling keeps it smooth.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, wine, cinnamon, sugar. 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.

More blancmange recipes

Arrowroot 42Rice 24Chocolate 15Cornstarch 14Lemon 14Almond 13 See all 129 →

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesCinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipes