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Dessert

A Richer Blancmange

A sweet dessert made from milk, isinglass, lemon rind, spices, almonds, sugar, rose water, and cream.

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 ↓

A Richer Blancmange

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse and sweeten

  1. Simmer the isinglass in the milk with lemon rind, cinnamon, and mace until dissolved.

  2. Sweeten the mixture with loaf sugar.

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch the sweet and bitter almonds with rose water.

  2. Pound the blanched almonds.

  3. Mix the almond mixture with the milk.

Strain and set

  1. Strain the mixture through a linen sieve or new flannel into a bowl with rich cream and stir thoroughly.

  2. Let it stand for an hour.

  3. Pour off the liquid into another basin, leaving sediment behind.

  4. When nearly cold, pour into molds.

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. 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
Sets the milk mixture into a firm, tender jelly as it cools.
New milk
Forms the liquid base that the isinglass dissolves into and then sets.
Rich cream
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and a softer mouthfeel.
Loaf sugar
Provides sweetness and balances the flavour of the almonds.
Sweet almonds
Contribute nutty flavour and body to the mixture.
Rose water
Adds a delicate floral aroma to the almond flavour.

The step that matters

Pouring into molds when nearly cold. Isinglass sets as the mixture cools. If the liquid is still hot when poured, the blancmange may stay soft and fail to hold its shape when turned out of the mold.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

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

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