Why it works: Condensed milk and sugar work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 804 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Blanc Mange with Stewed Fruit
Ingredients
Directions
Place the well sweetened preserved or baked fruit in a mold or dish.
Pour the hot blanc mange preparation over the fruit.
Let it stand until completely set.
Turn out into a glass dish.
For additional richness, stir 4 teaspoons of condensed milk into 1 pint of milk until well mixed.
Use only 3-4 lumps of sugar if using sweetened condensed milk, or add 2 oz of sugar if using unsweetened.
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.
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Condensed milk + sugartop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together804 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + condensed milktop 61% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together0 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
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