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Dessert

Chocolate Meringue

A custard of milk, egg yolks, and chocolate topped with meringue and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,404 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chocolate Meringue

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, combine milk and egg yolks to make a custard.

  2. Dissolve powdered chocolate in warm water.

  3. Add cornstarch and sugar to the custard, then bring to a boil while stirring.

  4. Pour the mixture into a baking dish.

Top and bake

  1. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff, then gradually add white sugar to form a meringue.

  2. Spread the meringue over the chocolate mixture.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for a few minutes until browned.

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. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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

Egg yolks
Thicken and enrich the custard as they set with gentle heat.
Cornstarch
Thickens the custard so it holds its shape when cut or spooned.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam to form the airy structure of the meringue.
White sugar
Stabilizes the whipped whites and sweetens the meringue topping.
Powdered chocolate
Gives the custard its chocolate flavor and color.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding richness and body.

The step that matters

Bring the custard to a boil while stirring. Cornstarch must reach a boil to fully thicken the custard. Constant stirring prevents scorching on the pan bottom and keeps the mixture smooth rather than lumpy.

“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.

More chocolate meringue recipes

Pie 13Pudding 8Custard 3 See all 11 →

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