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Dessert

Directions for Making Blancmange

A sweet dessert made with milk, cream, sugar, almonds, and lemon, thickened with isinglass and flavored with cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Directions for Making Blancmange

Ingredients

Directions

Make the isinglass base

  1. Combine isinglass and water in a saucepan. Heat gently until dissolved.

  2. Strain the mixture into another saucepan containing cream, milk, lemon peel, cinnamon, and sugar.

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch the sweet and bitter almonds. Pound the blanched almonds finely in a mortar, adding water as needed to keep them white.

  2. Add the ground almonds to the milk and cream mixture.

Cook, strain and set

  1. Heat the mixture on the stove for about 15 minutes. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

  2. When the mixture is half cold, stir in the ratafia or brandy. Pour the mixture into a mold when it begins to thicken.

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. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Isinglass
Gelatin-like setting agent that firms the cooled mixture into a sliceable body.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving a soft, smooth texture to the set dessert.
Milk
Provides the liquid base and mild dairy flavor for the custard-like mixture.
Sweet almonds
Ground into the mixture to add nutty flavor and body, with a creamy texture.
Bitter almonds
Contribute a concentrated almond aroma that flavors the whole dessert.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into the mold when it begins to thicken. Isinglass sets as the mixture cools, so pouring too early lets it run out of the mold, while waiting too long lets it set before it can be filled and shaped.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, milk, cinnamon, sugar, almond, brandy. 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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