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Dessert

Chocolate Filling

A chocolate filling made with chocolate, butter, powdered sugar, egg yolk, milk, 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 ↓

Chocolate Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the milk mixture

  1. Beat the egg yolk and stir it into the milk.

  2. Add the powdered sugar to the milk mixture.

Make the filling

  1. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler.

  2. Add the milk mixture and butter to the melted chocolate.

  3. Cook until smooth and thick.

  4. Stir in the vanilla and let cool.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  5. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Chocolate
Provides the main flavor and fat, and firms as the filling cools.
Egg yolk
Thickens the filling as it cooks and adds richness.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves smoothly into the liquid.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, glossy texture and rich mouthfeel.
Milk
Provides the liquid that the egg yolk and sugar blend into.

The step that matters

Cooking until smooth and thick. The egg yolk thickens the mixture as it heats, but high heat can make it scramble. Cooking gently over a double boiler and stirring keeps the filling smooth and evenly thickened.

“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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