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Dessert

Chocolate Bavarian Cream

A chilled chocolate custard made with gelatin, whipped cream, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Chocolate Bavarian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Melt the chocolate in a saucepan.

  2. Add hot milk and stir until it comes to a boil.

  3. Beat the egg yolks with sugar and vanilla, then stir into the milk, cooking for several minutes without boiling.

  4. Stir in the gelatin until dissolved, then strain into a bowl.

Chill and set

  1. Set the bowl on ice and beat until it begins to thicken.

  2. Gently fold in the whipped cream.

  3. Pour into a mold, cover tightly, and bury in a tub with ice and salt for 2 hours.

  4. Turn out onto a cold dish and serve.

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. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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 and add richness as they cook gently with the milk.
Gelatin
Sets the cream so it holds its shape when turned out of the mold.
Whipped cream
Adds air and lightness, giving the dessert a soft, creamy texture.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavor and color of the cream.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the yolks and gelatin set into a custard.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard without boiling. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently, but boiling can curdle them and leave a grainy texture. Keep the mixture just below a boil while stirring.

“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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