Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Chocolate Custards
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Boil 2 cups of milk in a saucepan.
In a separate bowl, mix 2 teaspoons of cornstarch with ½ cup of milk.
Pour the cornstarch mixture into the boiling milk and let it boil for 5 minutes, preferably in a double saucepan.
Add the cocoa and serve
In another bowl, combine 2 teaspoons of cocoa and 1 tablespoon of sugar.
Pour ½ cup of boiling water over the cocoa mixture, stirring until well dissolved.
Add the cocoa mixture to the custard and let it boil for 2 minutes.
Pour the custard into glasses or small cups and serve cold, topped with whipped cream if desired.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + cocoatop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together643 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cocoa + creamtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together304 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the milk into a smooth custard as it boils.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard.
- Cocoa
- Gives the custard its chocolate flavour and colour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and balances the bitter cocoa.
The step that matters
Mix the cornstarch with cold milk before adding it to the boiling milk. Cornstarch clumps if it hits hot liquid dry. Dispersing it in cold milk first lets the starch spread evenly, so it thickens the custard smoothly rather than forming lumps.
Swap the cocoa
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, cream):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Pistachiofits about as well
- Cocoathe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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