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Gelatine Blanc Mange

A chilled gelatin dessert made with milk, eggs, sugar, and vanilla, served with sugar and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Gelatine Blanc Mange

Ingredients

Directions

Make the blanc mange

  1. Soak the gelatine in the milk for 1 hour.

  2. Place the mixture over boiling water and bring to a boil.

  3. Stir in the beaten egg yolks and sugar, mixing briskly for a few moments.

  4. Allow to cool slightly, then fold in the beaten egg whites.

  5. Add vanilla to taste.

  6. Pour into a mold and refrigerate until set.

Serve

  1. Serve chilled with sugar and cream.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

Gelatine
Sets the milk mixture into a firm, wobbly custard as it cools.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the gelatine and eggs set into.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk and add richness and a custard-like body.
Egg whites
Folded in after cooling to lighten the texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the eggs and milk.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten egg yolks and sugar. Egg yolks can scramble if the mixture is too hot. Stirring briskly and keeping the heat gentle lets the yolks thicken the milk smoothly instead of curdling.

“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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