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Dessert

Chocolate Meringue

A chocolate custard topped with a browned meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate Meringue

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Beat the egg yolks with 3 ounces of sugar until well combined.

  3. Dissolve the cornstarch in 2 tablespoons of milk.

Make the custard

  1. In a heatproof bowl over boiling water, combine the chocolate and some of the milk; stir until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the remaining milk to the chocolate mixture and bring to a scald.

  3. Stir in the cornstarch mixture and cook until thickened.

  4. Remove from heat and mix in the yolk and sugar mixture until thicker than custard.

  5. Let cool slightly, then stir in the vanilla and pour into a glass dish.

Top and brown

  1. Once cooled, top with the meringue made from the egg whites and remaining sugar, spooning it into peaks.

  2. Brown the meringue by holding a hot spoon over it.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard, while whites whip into the stiff meringue topping.
Cornstarch
Starch swells and thickens the milk and chocolate mixture as it cooks.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and gives it a creamy body.
Chocolate
Supplies the main flavour and richness of the custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilise the meringue.

The step that matters

Remove from heat before adding the yolk mixture. Egg yolks scramble when added to very hot liquid. Taking the pan off the heat first lets the yolks thicken the custard gently and smoothly.

“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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