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Drink

Chocolate

A hot chocolate beverage made by mixing grated chocolate with milk and water, then boiling and sweetening.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,404 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chocolate

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, stir the grated chocolate with a little cold milk to form a smooth paste.

  2. In a saucepan, bring the mixed milk and water to a boil.

Make the chocolate milk

  1. Pour the chocolate paste into the boiling milk and water, stirring constantly.

  2. Boil for 2 minutes, then sweeten to taste.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

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

  3. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Grated chocolate
Provides the cocoa flavour and richness that give the drink its character.
Milk
Supplies the creamy body and moisture that make up most of the drink.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Pour the chocolate paste into the boiling liquid while stirring constantly. Chocolate mixed first into a smooth paste with cold milk disperses evenly. Stirring while it goes into the hot liquid prevents lumps and keeps the chocolate from settling and scorching on the base of the pan.

“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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