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Dessert

Blancmanges and Custards

A sweet almond custard made with milk, isinglass, lemon rind, spices, sugar, almonds, rose water, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Blancmanges and Custards

Ingredients

Directions

Make the almond milk

  1. Boil the milk with isinglass, lemon rind, cinnamon, mace, and lump sugar for a few minutes.

  2. Blanch and finely grind the bitter and sweet almonds with rose water.

  3. Combine the almond mixture with the milk and strain through a fine cloth into a bowl.

Set and serve

  1. Stir in the heavy cream and let it stand for half an hour.

  2. Pour into molds, leaving sediment behind, and refrigerate until nearly cold.

  3. To serve, run your finger around the mold, invert onto a dish, and garnish with orange slices.

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. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Isinglass
Gelatin-like setting agent that firms the milk mixture into a sliceable, moldable dessert.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the almonds, sugar and cream are combined into.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the set dessert a smooth, creamy texture.
Sweet almonds
Provide the main almond flavour and body once ground and strained into the milk.
Lump sugar
Sweetens the milk and balances the spices and almond flavour.

The step that matters

Pour into molds, leaving sediment behind. Almond solids and spices settle as the mixture stands. Pouring off the clear liquid keeps the set dessert smooth and free of grit, and the mixture must be cool enough to set firmly when chilled.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, lemon, cinnamon, sugar, almond, rose, cream):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, lemon, cinnamon, sugar, almond, rose, cream. 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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