Name: Cornstarch Blanc Mange
Ingredients: 1 pint milk; 2 tablespoons cornstarch; 3 tablespoons sugar; a pinch of salt; flavoring (optional); 2 tablespoons butter; 1 egg (optional)

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 ↓

Cornstarch Blanc Mange

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

Boil the milk with the sugar.
Mix the cornstarch with a little cold milk or water.
Stir the cornstarch mixture into the boiling milk and cook for 1–2 minutes.
Remove from heat and beat in the butter until smooth.

Mold and serve

Pour into molds and let cool.
Once cold, turn out from the molds and serve with sweetened cream or fruit jelly.

Optional additions

For added flavor, boil a couple of peach leaves in the milk.
If using, beat the egg separately and fold the stiffly beaten egg white into the mixture after removing from heat. Omit the butter if using the egg.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

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

Cornstarch: Thickens the milk as its starch swells and sets when heated and cooled.
Milk: Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens into a custard.
Sugar: Sweetens the pudding and balances the mild dairy flavor.
Butter: Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished pudding.
Egg: If used, the whipped white adds lightness and a softer, airier texture.

The step that matters

Adding the cornstarch mixture to the boiling milk. Stir the slurry in steadily while the milk boils so the starch disperses evenly without lumps. Cook for the full 1–2 minutes so the starch fully swells and thickens; undercooked starch leaves the pudding thin and tasting raw.

“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.