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Dessert

Blancmange

A sweet dessert made from milk, sugar, almonds, and spices, thickened with isinglass and set in molds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 base

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

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

  3. Mix the almond paste with the milk.

  4. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a basin.

  5. Add the cream.

  6. Let the mixture stand for 30 minutes.

  7. Pour the mixture into another basin, leaving sediment behind.

Mould and serve

  1. Fill the molds when the mixture is nearly cold.

  2. Run your finger around the mold.

  3. Invert the molded dessert onto a dish.

  4. 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 mixture so it holds its shape when moulded.
New milk
Forms the liquid body of the dessert, giving it a soft, creamy base once set.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving a smoother, silkier texture to the set dessert.
Sweet almonds
Contribute nutty flavour and body from the ground almond paste mixed into the milk.
Lump sugar
Sweetens the milk and adds flavour to the base.

The step that matters

Fill the molds when the mixture is nearly cold. If the mixture is still hot, it can melt the setting agent's structure and fail to firm properly; if it is too cold it may set unevenly in the mould before filling is complete.

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

Arrowroot 42Rice 24Chocolate 15Cornstarch 14Lemon 14Almond 13 See all 129 →

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