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Dessert

Blanc-manger

A French almond custard thickened with isinglass, made from boiled almonds and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,125 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Blanc-manger

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Combine the Jordan and bitter almonds with hot water in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

  2. Drain the almonds, rinse them in cold water, and remove their skins.

  3. Wash and pound the almonds with orange-flower water and loaf sugar until a fine pulp forms.

Make the almond milk

  1. Transfer the mixture to a basin, add spring water, mix, and let it cool for an hour.

  2. Strain the almond milk through a clean sieve into a bowl, then mix in the clarified isinglass.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the blanc-manger into a mould set in ice and allow it to firm up before serving.

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. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

  3. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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

Jordan almonds
Provide the main almond flavour and body of the blanc-manger.
Bitter almonds
Add a concentrated almond aroma that rounds out the sweet almonds.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the dish and helps form a smooth, fine pulp with the almonds.
Clarified isinglass
Sets the liquid into a firm, tender gel as it chills.
Orange-flower water
Adds a floral aroma that complements the almond flavour.

The step that matters

Pounding to a fine pulp. If the almonds are not pounded finely enough, the almond milk will be grainy and the set will be uneven. Strain carefully so that the texture stays smooth and the isinglass can set the liquid evenly.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, 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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