Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 43,450 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Corn Starch Blanc Mange
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Dissolve corn starch in milk.
Add sugar and beaten egg whites (and yolks for color).
Pour mixture into boiling milk and add salt.
Stir while thickening.
Flavor with lemon.
Chill and serve
Pour into cups.
Chill on ice.
Once cool, turn out.
Serve with whipped cream.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
-
Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,927 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Corn starch
- Swells in hot milk and thickens the liquid into a set, creamy pudding.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens into a custard-like texture.
- Egg whites
- Add body and light structure as they set with the heated mixture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the lemon flavoring.
The step that matters
Stir while the pudding thickens. Cornstarch needs heat and constant stirring to swell evenly. Without stirring, it can form lumps or scorch on the bottom of the pan, and the pudding will not thicken smoothly.
Flavor stand-ins for the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, milk, sugar, egg, cream):
- Vanillabetter flavor fit
- Coconutbetter flavor fit
- Figbetter flavor fit
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against corn, milk, sugar, egg, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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