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Dessert

Chocolate Cream

A chocolate custard made with milk, eggs, sugar, chocolate, vanilla, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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. Bring the milk to a boil.

  2. Mix the chocolate with a little cold milk to form a paste.

  3. Add the chocolate paste to the boiling milk.

  4. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together.

  5. Add the beaten yolks and sugar to the milk mixture.

  6. Allow to boil again.

  7. Let cool slightly.

Finish and serve

  1. Whip the egg whites.

  2. Fold the whipped whites into the mixture.

  3. Flavor with vanilla.

  4. When ready to freeze, add fresh cream to your desired consistency.

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
Egg yolks thicken the custard, while whipped whites lighten its texture.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that the custard sets and thickens within.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.
Chocolate
Gives the custard its chocolate flavor and color.
Fresh cream
Adds richness and fat, softening the texture of the frozen custard.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten yolks to the milk. Egg yolks can scramble if they meet very hot milk too quickly. Adding them gradually while whisking, and then cooking gently, lets the yolks thicken the custard smoothly.

“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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