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Drink

Cocoa

A warm beverage made by heating milk, dissolving cocoa powder, sugar, and salt, then cooking and whisking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Cocoa

Why it works: Cocoa powder and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,920 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cocoa

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Heat the milk in a double boiler until scalded.

  2. In a separate bowl, dissolve the cocoa, sugar, and salt in a little boiling water.

  3. Stir the cocoa mixture into the hot milk.

  4. Cook for 15 minutes, then beat with a whisk for 1 minute.

  5. Serve immediately.

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. Cocoa powder + sugartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  3. Milk + cocoa powdertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

Milk
Provides the liquid base and body that the cocoa disperses into.
Cocoa powder
Supplies the chocolate flavor and color of the drink.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the cocoa.

“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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