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Dessert

Dutch Blancmange

A sweet dessert made from isinglass, egg yolks, wine, lemon, cinnamon, and sugar, set in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Dutch Blancmange

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the isinglass

  1. Wash the isinglass.

  2. Pour boiling water over it.

  3. Let it stand for 1 hour.

  4. Boil the mixture for 20 minutes.

  5. Strain it.

Make the custard

  1. Add the beaten egg yolks, Lisbon wine, lemon peel, lemon juice, cinnamon, and sugar when nearly cold.

  2. Stir over low heat until it begins to simmer, but do not let it boil.

  3. Remove the lemon peel and cinnamon.

  4. Pour into a basin.

  5. Stir until nearly cold.

Set

  1. Transfer to a mold.

  2. Refrigerate until set.

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. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Wine + cinnamontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,170 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  5. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 gel as it cools.
Egg yolks
Thicken and enrich the custard, giving it a smooth, creamy body.
Lisbon wine
Adds sweetness, body and a fruity, aromatic flavor to the blancmange.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the dish and balances the acidity of the lemon.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavor that infuses the mixture.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat without boiling. Egg yolks scramble and curdle when overheated, leaving lumps. Gentle heat lets them thicken the custard smoothly, so it should only simmer.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, wine, cinnamon, sugar. 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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