Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Chocolate Italian Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the mixture
In a saucepan, combine sugar, milk, butter, and chocolate.
Boil for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat and stir for 5 minutes.
Set
Pour into a greased pan.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,128 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Butter + chocolatetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,543 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and body to the mixture as it cooks.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that cooks down into a creamy, moist base.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture.
- Chocolate
- Supplies cocoa flavour and richness to the mixture.
The step that matters
Boil for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Sugar-rich mixtures scorch easily on the bottom of the pan. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly and keeps the mixture from burning while the sugar concentrates.
“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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