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Dessert

Mottled Chocolate Cream

A chilled dessert made from gelatin, eggs, milk, and chocolate, layered for a mottled appearance.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla 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 ↓

Mottled Chocolate Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatine

  1. Soak the gelatin in cold water for at least 1 hour.

  2. Fill a cup with boiling water and keep hot until the gelatin dissolves.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs with half of the sugar.

  2. Pour the boiling milk into the beaten yolks.

  3. Cook the mixture until it thickens, stirring constantly.

  4. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  5. Slowly pour the hot mixture into the stiff egg whites while stirring briskly.

  6. Add the dissolved gelatin and vanilla extract to the mixture.

  7. Divide the mixture in half.

  8. Stir the melted chocolate into one half of the mixture.

  9. Allow both mixtures to cool, stirring occasionally.

Mottle and set

  1. Pour a little of the dark mixture into a mold and let it partially harden.

  2. Add some of the light mixture, repeating until all is used.

  3. Keep the unused mixture warm to prevent hardening.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 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

Gelatin
Sets the cream so it holds its shape when unmolded.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and thicken the custard; whites are beaten to add lightness.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the cream and helps stabilise the beaten egg yolks.
Baker's chocolate
Gives the dark mottled portion its chocolate flavour and colour.

The step that matters

Slowly pour the hot mixture into the stiff egg whites. Adding hot custard too quickly can deflate the whites and cause them to cook unevenly; pouring slowly while stirring briskly tempers the mixture and keeps it airy.

“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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