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Chocolate Custard

A gelatinous chocolate custard made with milk, chocolate, and sweetened cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 ↓

Chocolate Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatine in the quart of milk.

  2. Grate the chocolate into the milk and sweeten to taste.

Cook and set

  1. Place in a double boiler and cook for 20 minutes, stirring constantly.

  2. Pour into a mold and refrigerate until congealed.

Serve

  1. Serve with sweetened cream flavored with a little vanilla.

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 + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

Gelatine
Sets the milk and chocolate mixture into a firm, sliceable custard when chilled.
Baker's chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and colour, and adds richness to the milk.
Rich milk
Forms the liquid base that carries the chocolate and gelatine and gives the custard its body.
Sweetened cream
Adds cool, creamy richness that contrasts with the firm, chocolate custard.

The step that matters

Dissolving and cooking the gelatine mixture gently. Gelatine must be fully dissolved before chilling, or it will set unevenly. Constant stirring in a double boiler heats the milk gently, which helps prevent scorching and lumps in the chocolate.

“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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