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Dessert

West Indian Blanc Mange

A West Indian pudding made with arrow-root, flour, milk, bitter almonds, lemon peel, sugar, sweetmeats, egg yolk, sherry, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,673 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

West Indian Blanc Mange

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the blanc mange

  1. Mix arrow-root and flour with a little cold milk.

  2. Boil milk flavored with bitter almonds and lemon peel.

  3. Strain the hot milk through a sieve onto the arrow-root mixture.

  4. Stir well over the fire until thick.

  5. Pour the mixture into a mold.

  6. Let it cool.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Mix egg yolk, sherry, brandy, and sugar.

  2. Warm the mixture and serve around the pudding.

  3. Garnish with sweetmeats 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Almond + sherrytop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together517 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Arrow-root
Thickens the milk into a smooth, set custard-like pudding.
Flour
Adds body and helps thicken the milk alongside the arrow-root.
Milk
Forms the base of the pudding and carries the flavourings.
Egg yolk
Enriches the sauce, adding richness and body when warmed.

The step that matters

Stir well over the fire until thick. Starch thickens only when heated enough to swell and gelatinise, so the mixture must be stirred constantly to prevent lumps and scorching on the base of the pan.

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, almond, sugar, egg, sherry, brandy):

  1. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  2. Raisinbetter flavor fit
  3. Figbetter flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, almond, sugar, egg, sherry, brandy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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