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Dessert

Baked Chocolate Custard

A custard made with milk, eggs, sugar, chocolate, and water, baked until firm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and chocolate 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 ↓

Baked Chocolate Custard

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard base

  1. Heat the milk in a double boiler or on an asbestos mat.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix the chocolate and sugar, then add the boiling water and stir until smooth and glossy.

  3. Remove from heat and gradually beat in the hot milk.

  4. Add the salt and pour the mixture over the well-beaten eggs, stirring continuously.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour into a baking dish and place it in a pan of hot water.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until the center is firm, about 30 minutes.

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 + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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

Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, giving it a firm, sliceable structure.
Milk
Provides the liquid base and moisture that gives the custard its smooth, creamy body.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.
Grated chocolate
Supplies the chocolate flavor and color, and adds richness to the custard.

The step that matters

Gradually beat the hot milk into the chocolate mixture. Adding hot milk all at once can cause the chocolate to seize or stay grainy. Adding it slowly lets the mixture blend smoothly and stay glossy.

“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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