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Dessert

West Indian Blanc Mange

A West Indian dessert made from 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 very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the blancmange

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

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

  3. Strain the milk through a sieve onto the arrow-root mixture and stir well over heat.

  4. Boil until thick, then pour into a mold.

Garnish and serve

  1. Once cold, garnish with sweetmeats.

  2. For the sauce, beat the egg yolk, then mix in sherry, brandy, and sugar, and warm it.

  3. Serve the sauce around the pudding, not over it.

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, sliceable set custard without eggs.
Flour
Adds extra body and helps prevent lumps when thickening the milk.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that thickens into the blancmange.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the warm sauce, giving it a smooth, rich texture.

The step that matters

Boil until thick, then pour into a mold. Starch thickens only when the mixture reaches a boil, and it must be stirred constantly so it does not scorch or form lumps. Pouring it out too early leaves a runny pudding that will not hold its shape.

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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