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Dessert

Blancmange

A sweet, gelatinous dessert made from rice flour, milk, cream, and gelatin, flavored with vanilla, orange flower water, or rose water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Blancmange

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Blancmange

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the rice flour with a little cold milk to form a paste.

  2. Combine the remaining milk and sugar in a saucepan, and bring to a boil.

  3. Add the paste to the boiling mixture and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring frequently.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the cream and gelatine until smooth.

  5. Flavour as desired and pour into moulds to 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Rice + vanillatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,352 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Fine rice flour
Thickens the milk as it simmers, giving the blancmange its body and smooth texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the rice flour thickens into a creamy custard.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, softening the texture and giving a smoother mouthfeel.
Gelatine
Sets the cooled mixture so it holds its shape when unmoulded.

The step that matters

Simmering the rice flour paste. Rice flour must simmer long enough in the boiling milk to fully swell and thicken; stirring frequently prevents scorching and lumps at the base of the pan.

“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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