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Dessert

Good Common Blamange, Ob Blanc Manger

A custard made from milk, lemon rind, bitter almonds, sugar, isinglass, cream, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Good Common Blamange, Ob Blanc Manger

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Infuse the lemon rind and bitter almonds in the milk for 1 hour.

  2. Add the sugar and isinglass, then boil gently while stirring until the isinglass dissolves.

  3. Skim off any scum, then stir in the cream.

Finish and mold

  1. Strain the mixture into a bowl and stir gently until nearly cold to prevent the cream from settling.

  2. Gradually mix in the brandy before molding.

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

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

  2. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  4. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Isinglass
Sets the liquid into a firm, tender jelly as it cools.
Rich cream
Adds fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel in the set custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the bitterness of the almonds.
Brandy
Adds alcohol flavour and aroma to the finished custard.
Bitter almonds
Contribute a strong almond aroma and flavour to the milk.

The step that matters

Stirring the mixture while it cools before molding. Stirring gently until nearly cold keeps the cream suspended instead of separating and rising to the top. Adding the brandy too early or while the mixture is still hot can also disrupt setting, so it should be added once the custard has cooled nearly to setting temperature.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, almond, sugar, cream, brandy. 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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