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Dessert

Chocolate Custards

A chocolate custard made with milk, eggs, chocolate, sugar, and vanilla, topped with frosted egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Chocolate Custards

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 Custards

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat 8 yolks and 2 egg whites until light.

  2. Boil the milk in a saucepan.

  3. Stir the chocolate and sugar into the boiling milk.

  4. Pour the mixture into a clear pitcher.

  5. Place the pitcher in a pot of boiling water.

  6. Stir gently in one direction until it thickens to a cream.

  7. Strain the mixture.

  8. Add the vanilla.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour the custard into cups.

  2. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  3. Add the sugar and mix well.

  4. Top each custard with a dollop of the frosted egg whites.

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. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

Vanilla and sugar 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 set with gentle heat, giving it a smooth, rich body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs thicken into a custard.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavour and colour of the custard.
Egg whites
Beaten to stiff peaks with sugar to make the light topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilise the beaten egg white topping.

The step that matters

Stir gently in one direction until it thickens to a cream. Egg proteins set with gentle, even heat. Overheating or rough stirring can curdle the custard and leave it grainy, so keep the heat moderate and the stirring slow.

“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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