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Dessert

Chocolate Cream

A rich chocolate custard made with milk, eggs, sugar, and chocolate, finished with vanilla and served with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Chocolate Cream

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 Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk in a saucepan with the baking soda and salt.

  2. Dissolve the chocolate in a little cold milk and stir it into the heated milk. Stir constantly until the chocolate is fully dissolved.

  3. In a bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together.

  4. Pour the hot milk and chocolate mixture over the egg mixture and mix thoroughly.

  5. Return the mixture to the heat and stir well until it thickens.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour it out, add vanilla extract, and let it cool.

  2. Serve with whipped cream sweetened with powdered sugar.

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. 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

Eggs
Thicken the custard as they set with heat, giving it body and structure.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and carries the chocolate flavour.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavour and colour of the custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a light, airy contrast to the smooth custard.

The step that matters

Returning the mixture to the heat. Egg proteins set when heated, so the custard thickens; if it gets too hot or is stirred too little, the eggs can scramble and turn grainy.

“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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