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Dessert

Irish Moss Blanc Mange

A thickened milk dessert made with Irish moss, flavored, set, and served with cream and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Irish Moss Blanc Mange

Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Irish Moss Blanc Mange

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the moss

  1. Soak the Irish moss in cold water to cover for 15 minutes, then drain the moss.

  2. Pick over and wash the moss.

Make the pudding

  1. Place the moss in a double boiler with the milk and cook until it thickens when dropped on a cold plate.

  2. Add salt.

  3. Strain the mixture.

  4. Add your chosen flavoring.

  5. Pour into a moistened cup and let it set.

Serve

  1. Unmould and serve with cream and sugar.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

  3. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  4. Milk + irish mosstop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  5. Irish moss + sugartop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together107 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Irish moss
Its natural gelling compounds thicken the milk and make it set as it cools.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that becomes a soft, sliceable pudding as it sets.

The step that matters

Cooking until a drop thickens on a cold plate. The moss's gelling compounds must dissolve fully into the milk. The pudding sets as it cools, so undercooking leaves it runny. Gentle heat in a double boiler also keeps the milk from scorching.

“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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