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Dessert

Quince Blanc-mange

A chilled quince custard made with quince juice, isinglass, sugar, cream, and set in a greased mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Quince Blanc-mange

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Dissolve isinglass in the quince juice over a clear fire for 20-30 minutes until it jellies when falling from a spoon.

  2. Remove any scum.

Combine and set

  1. Gradually pour the boiling jelly into the thick cream.

  2. Stir briskly until nearly cold.

  3. Grease a mold with a small amount of salad oil or dip it in cold water.

  4. Pour the mixture into the prepared mold.

  5. Refrigerate until set.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Quince + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,444 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Quince + creamtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together203 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Isinglass
Sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly jelly as it cools.
Quince juice
Provides the main flavour and liquid base for the jelly.
Thick cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the set dessert.
Sugar
Sweetens the blancmange and balances the tartness of the quince.

The step that matters

Stir the jelly into the cream while nearly cold. Isinglass sets as it cools, so if the mixture is still very hot when poured, or is stirred too little, it may set unevenly or separate. Stirring briskly while it cools keeps it smooth and evenly distributed before it firms in the mold.

Swap the quince

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Quincethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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