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 ↓
Brick Blanc Mange
Ingredients
Directions
Make the jelly
Bring the milk to a boil.
Mix corn starch with a little milk to make a thick paste.
Add the paste to the boiling milk.
Boil for about 3 minutes.
Stir in sugar and beaten egg whites, cooking until it thickens like jelly.
Divide the mixture into three equal parts.
Stir chocolate into one part and fruit coloring into another, leaving the third part white.
Flavor to taste.
Layer and serve
Wet a square mold with cold water.
Layer the chocolate mixture first, then the pink, and finally the white.
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.
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
-
Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together5,466 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together9,128 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cooks.
- Egg whites
- Add structure and lift to the jelly as they cook and set.
- Milk
- Forms the base of the jelly and supplies its creamy body.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps give it a smooth texture.
- Chocolate
- Flavors one layer with chocolate.
The step that matters
Cooking the starch mixture until it thickens. Corn starch only thickens fully when the mixture reaches a boil and is stirred, so the paste must be fully cooked. Undercooked starch leaves a thin, runny jelly that will not hold its layers when cut.
“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.
You might also like
Chocolate Cream171 recipes
Corn Cake90 recipes
Corn Starch Cake89 recipes
Chocolate Cookies76 recipesThe Sunday pairing: one pairing, the chemistry behind it, and how to cook it. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account for sign-in; Pro adds the full results and chemistry.