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Chocolate Tartlets

Chocolate tartlets filled with a chocolate custard and topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Chocolate Tartlets

Why it works: Vanilla and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Chocolate Tartlets

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate custard

  1. Rub the grated chocolate smooth in the milk.

  2. Heat the mixture over medium heat.

  3. Add the dissolved cornstarch.

  4. Stir until thickened.

  5. Pour out and let cool.

  6. Beat in the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill open pastry shells in patty pans with the mixture.

  2. Bake until set.

  3. Cover with meringue made from the egg whites and a little powdered sugar.

  4. Let the meringue color slightly.

  5. Serve 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

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

  3. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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 and enrich it, while whites whip into the meringue topping.
Cornstarch
Starch swells in the hot milk, thickening the chocolate mixture into a firm custard.
Baking chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and body of the custard filling.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the chocolate and cornstarch are cooked into.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the meringue hold its structure.

The step that matters

Stir until thickened. Cornstarch must be fully heated in the liquid to swell and thicken; stopping too early leaves the custard thin and runny once cooled.

“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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