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Dessert

Lemon Blanc-mange

A custard dessert made with milk, egg yolks, ground rice, butter, lemon zest and juice, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Lemon Blanc-mange

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Make a custard with the egg yolks and ½ pint of the milk.

  2. Transfer the custard to a bowl.

  3. In a saucepan, combine the remaining milk, ground rice, butter, lemon rind, and 3 oz. of sugar.

  4. Boil the mixture until thick, stirring constantly.

  5. Pour the thick mixture into the bowl with the custard and mix well.

Add the gelatin and lemon

  1. In another saucepan, combine the gelatin with the remaining milk and heat until dissolved.

  2. Boil the gelatin mixture for 1–2 minutes.

  3. Carefully stir the gelatin mixture into the bowl, adding the remaining 3 oz. of sugar.

  4. Stir in the strained lemon juice.

Set in a mold

  1. Pour the mixture into a well‑oiled mold, discarding the lemon peel.

  2. Set the mold in a pan of cold water until ready to serve.

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
Ground rice
Thickens the milk mixture so the blancmange holds its body.
Gelatin
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when cold.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich mouthfeel and smooth texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the custard and thickeners set in.

The step that matters

Boil the thick mixture until thick, stirring constantly. Ground rice and egg yolks can scorch or curdle on the bottom of the pan if left unstirred. Constant stirring keeps heat even so the starch thickens into a smooth base.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, rice, sugar, butter, gelatin. 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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