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Dessert

Lemon Blancmange

A chilled lemon-flavored dessert made with milk, egg yolks, ground rice, sugar, butter, lemon rind, lemon juice, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Lemon Blancmange

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 Blancmange

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Make a custard with the egg yolks and ½ quart of the milk, then transfer to a basin.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the remaining milk, ground rice, butter, lemon rind, and 3 oz. of sugar; boil until thick, stirring constantly.

  3. Pour the thick mixture into the basin with the custard and mix well.

Add the gelatine

  1. In another saucepan, combine the gelatine with the rest of the milk and let it dissolve by the fire; boil for 1-2 minutes.

  2. Carefully stir the gelatine mixture into the basin, adding the remaining 3 oz. of sugar.

Set and serve

  1. Once cool, stir in the strained lemon juice and pour into a well-oiled mould.

  2. Set the mould 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

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

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

  5. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 when set.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid so the blancmange firms into a sliceable shape when cool.
Butter
Adds fat for a softer, richer mouthfeel.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and flavor of the dessert.

The step that matters

Carefully stir the gelatine mixture into the basin. Gelatine sets only when fully dissolved and evenly mixed; stirring too roughly or while the mixture is too hot can cause lumps or weaken the set, and the custard can curdle if it is overheated.

Swap the lemon

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

  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. 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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