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Frozen Chocolate Custard

A chilled chocolate custard made with egg yolks, sugar, milk, chocolate, cream, and vanilla.

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

Frozen Chocolate Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Combine the broken chocolate and milk in a double boiler.

  2. Stir until the chocolate is thoroughly melted.

  3. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together.

  4. Pour the beaten mixture into the hot chocolate mixture.

  5. Continue stirring until the mixture is smooth and thick.

  6. Let the custard cool.

Finish and freeze

  1. Add the cream and vanilla just before freezing.

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they cook and give it a rich, smooth body.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and softens the texture of the frozen dessert.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the chocolate melts into and the custard thickens in.
Chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and colour of the custard.
Cream
Adds fat for a richer, smoother texture after freezing.

The step that matters

Pour the beaten mixture into the hot chocolate mixture.. Adding the yolks to hot liquid too fast can scramble them. Stirring steadily while pouring keeps the eggs smooth and lets the custard thicken evenly.

“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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