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Dessert

Blanc Mange

A clear almond gelatin dessert flavored with rose water and sweetened with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,456 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Blanc Mange

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Boil water and dissolve isinglass until reduced to 1 pint.

  2. Add egg whites and rice water to prevent poaching.

  3. Sweeten with sugar.

  4. Strain through a jelly bag.

  5. Add sweet almonds.

  6. Add bitter almonds.

  7. Scald the almonds in the jelly.

  8. Strain the mixture again.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into a china bowl and refrigerate overnight.

  2. Turn out the next day and garnish with blanched almonds and flowers.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Rice + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together15,679 recipes

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

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Rice + rosetop 23% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together245 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Isinglass
Gelling agent that sets the water into a firm, wobbly jelly when chilled.
Egg whites
Clarify the liquid as they coagulate, helping produce a clear jelly when strained.
Sweet almonds
Provide the main almond flavour and body in the jelly.
Bitter almonds
Add a concentrated almond aroma and a sharper, more intense flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the jelly and balances the almond flavour.

The step that matters

Add egg whites and rice water to prevent poaching. Egg whites must be added to cool liquid and brought up gently; as they heat they coagulate and trap impurities, which is why the jelly can be strained clear. Stirring too vigorously or overheating can cloud the jelly or let the whites scramble into lumps.

“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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