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Dessert

A Beautiful Dessert

A chocolate custard dessert topped with meringue kisses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

A Beautiful Dessert

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate base

  1. Combine grated chocolate and cold milk in a saucepan.

  2. Add the mixture to hot milk and stir until thickened.

  3. Pour the chocolate mixture into a mold and let it cool.

Make the custard

  1. Make a boiled custard in another saucepan with 1 quart milk, 5 eggs, and 2 tablespoons sugar, then allow to cool.

  2. Pour the cooled custard around the chocolate mixture in a shallow dish.

Top with meringue kisses

  1. Beat the reserved egg whites with 2 tablespoons pulverized sugar until stiff peaks form.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the egg white mixture over the pudding and custard, shaping them like kisses.

  3. Optionally, place a little bright jelly on each kiss or color part of the egg froth with fruit syrup and add on top.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  4. Chocolate + syruptop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,239 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Grated chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and, once chilled, sets the firm pudding base.
Eggs
Thicken the boiled custard as they cook and add richness to the sauce.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they form the airy structure of the meringue kisses.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of both the chocolate pudding and the custard.

The step that matters

Stirring the chocolate mixture into hot milk until thickened. Stirring keeps the mixture smooth and evenly thickened; the starch and proteins need steady movement to set without lumps or scorching on the pan bottom.

“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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