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Drink

Vienna Chocolate

A chocolate drink made by dissolving unsweetened chocolate in hot water, then adding sugar, milk, and thickening with cornstarch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Vienna Chocolate

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate base

  1. Shave the chocolate finely and add it to the hot water.

  2. Once dissolved, add the brown sugar and milk, stirring frequently.

Thicken and finish

  1. Dissolve the cornstarch in ½ cup of milk.

  2. When the chocolate mixture boils, stir in the cornstarch mixture.

  3. For best results, mix a few tablespoons of the hot chocolate into the cold milk before combining.

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. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk 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

Unsweetened chocolate
Provides the deep chocolate flavor and body of the drink.
Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid as its starch swells and sets when the mixture boils.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses-like depth to the chocolate.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the chocolate's bitterness.

The step that matters

Stir in the cornstarch mixture once the chocolate boils. Cornstarch only thickens fully when it reaches a boil, so the liquid must be hot enough. Stirring while adding the slurry disperses the starch evenly and prevents lumps.

“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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