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Dessert

Blancmange of Almonds

A chilled almond dessert made with almonds, milk, sugar, isinglass, Noyau, cream, and egg whites.

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

Blancmange of Almonds

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almond base

  1. Pound the almonds in a mortar with a little water to prevent oiling.

  2. Add the milk and rub the mixture through a fine cloth.

Set the blancmange

  1. Sweeten with loaf sugar and add the warm isinglass.

  2. When it begins to congeal, mix in the Noyau.

  3. Beat the cream and egg whites to a solid froth and fold into the mixture.

  4. Set the mold in ice to chill.

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. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

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

  3. Almond + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Almonds
Provide the main flavour and body of the blancmange, thickened into a smooth milk-based base.
Isinglass
Sets the mixture as it cools, giving the blancmange its firm, sliceable structure.
Cream
Adds richness and a soft, creamy texture to the set dessert.
Egg whites
Whipped to a froth, they add lightness and air to the mixture.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped cream and egg whites. Whipped foams lose air if stirred vigorously, so fold gently and add them only once the base has begun to thicken. Otherwise the froth collapses and the set texture becomes dense rather than light.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pecansfits about as well
  3. Pistachiofits less well
  4. Chestnutfits less well

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