Why it works: Milk and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and 77,875 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Blanc-mange
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
In a saucepan, combine 1 quart of milk, 3 ounces of loaf sugar, and 1 inch of cinnamon or lemon peel.
Heat the saucepan over medium heat until the mixture boils.
In a bowl, mix 4 tablespoons of cornflour with 1 tablespoon of cold milk until smooth.
Rinse a quart basin or mold with cold water.
Make and set
Once the milk mixture is boiling, quickly stir in the cornflour mixture and boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent lumps.
Remove the cinnamon or lemon peel from the mixture, then pour the cornflour mixture into the basin and set aside to cool.
Serve
Once the blanc-mange is completely cool, turn it out onto a dish and serve.
Optionally, serve with jam or custard.
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.
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar share little aroma chemistry, yet 77,875 recipes mention both: they likely 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
- Milk
- Forms the body of the dessert and sets into a soft, creamy custard.
- Cornflour
- Thickens the milk as it boils, so the mixture sets firm when cooled.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the mild, milky flavour.
The step that matters
Stirring in the cornflour mixture. Cornflour must be smoothed in cold milk first and stirred constantly into boiling liquid, because it otherwise forms lumps. Boiling for the full two minutes fully gelatinises the starch so the blanc-mange sets properly.
“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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