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Drink

Plain Chocolate

A chocolate milk beverage made by melting chocolate with boiling water and hot boiled milk, sweetened to taste.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Plain Chocolate

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Break the chocolate into small pieces.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the chocolate and boiling water, stirring until melted.

  3. Add the hot boiled milk and sweeten to taste.

  4. Once it begins to boil, remove from heat and serve.

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. Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

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

  3. 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

Chocolate
Provides the main flavor and body, and melts into the milk to make it rich.
Milk
Forms the liquid base, adding creaminess and a mild, rounded sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness, adjusted to taste.

The step that matters

Melting the chocolate with boiling water. Chocolate can seize or turn grainy if it is overheated or hit with liquid too quickly. Melting it gently in a small amount of boiling water first lets it blend smoothly into the milk.

“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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