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Dessert

Blancmange

A chilled almond and milk dessert made with isinglass, lemon rind, spices, sugar, almonds, rose water, cream, and optional Noyeau.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Blancmange

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 ↓

Blancmange

Ingredients

Directions

Make the milk base

  1. Boil the milk with isinglass, lemon rind, cinnamon, mace, and lump sugar for a few minutes.

  2. Blanch and finely pound the bitter and sweet almonds with rose water.

  3. Mix the almond paste with the milk and strain through a fine sieve into a basin.

Set and mould

  1. Add the cream and let it stand for 30 minutes.

  2. Pour into another basin, leaving sediment behind, and fill into molds.

Serve

  1. To serve, run your finger around the mold, pull out the blancmange, and garnish with orange slices.

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

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

  4. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Isinglass
Gelatine-like setting agent that firms the milk and cream into a sliceable blancmange.
New milk
Forms the liquid base that the isinglass sets into a creamy body.
Good cream
Adds richness and a smooth, soft texture to the set dessert.
Sweet almonds
Provide nutty flavour and body through the pounded almond paste.
Bitter almonds
Add a concentrated almond aroma to the milk base.
Lump sugar
Sweetens the milk and balances the flavour of the almonds and spices.

The step that matters

Straining through a fine sieve. Straining removes the pounded almond solids and any residue so the set blancmange is smooth. Leaving the sediment behind in the next pouring keeps it clear and even.

Swap the almond

The recipe marks almond as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, lemon, cinnamon, mace, sugar, rose, cream):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pistachiofits about as well
  3. Walnutfits less well
  4. Chestnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, lemon, cinnamon, mace, sugar, rose, 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.

More blancmange recipes

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