Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Chocolate Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the chocolate
Scrape the chocolate finely.
Dissolve the chocolate in water.
Beat the mixture in a marble mortar for half an hour.
Sweeten and mill
Add sugar to sweeten.
Mix in the cream.
Mill the mixture.
Froth and serve
Let the froth rise.
Place the froth on a sieve.
Pour the remaining cream into glasses.
Top the glasses with the frothed cream.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,466 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 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
- Chocolate
- Provides the main flavour and the body of the cream.
- Cream
- Its fat gives the mixture richness and a smooth, velvety texture.
- Fine sugar
- Sweetens the chocolate and balances its bitterness.
The step that matters
Beat the mixture in a marble mortar for half an hour.. Sustained beating incorporates air and smooths the chocolate, so the mixture becomes light and even. Stopping early leaves it dense and grainy.
“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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