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Dessert

Chocolate Custard or Cream

A chocolate custard made with egg whites, yolks, chocolate, water, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,466 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Chocolate Custard or Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix the egg yolks with the chocolate dissolved in hot water.

  3. Add the cream to the chocolate mixture and bring to a boil.

  4. Slowly pour the hot mixture over the egg yolks while stirring constantly.

Make the custard

  1. Place the mixture in a pitcher and set it in boiling water.

  2. Stir the custard constantly until it thickens.

Serve

  1. Serve in glasses and refrigerate until cold.

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 + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Egg + chocolatetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

  3. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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 the custard as they set with gentle heat, giving it body and richness.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiffness, they add airy lightness to the dish.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavour and, as it melts, contributes richness and body.
Cream
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture and mellows the chocolate.

The step that matters

Stir the custard constantly until it thickens. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently, but if they get too hot they scramble. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly so the custard turns smooth rather than grainy.

“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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