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Dessert

Chocolate Cream

A gelatin-based chocolate custard made with milk, chocolate, sugar, egg yolks, vanilla, and set in molds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water to cover for 1 hour.

  2. Boil the milk in a saucepan.

  3. Scrape the chocolate and mix it with the sugar.

  4. Moisten the chocolate mixture with the boiling milk.

Make the custard

  1. Stir in the soaked gelatine and the beaten egg yolks.

  2. Stir briskly for 3 minutes, then remove from heat.

  3. Strain the mixture and add the vanilla.

Mold and serve

  1. Pour into molds and let cool.

  2. Serve with sugar and cream.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid so the dessert holds its shape when cooled.
Egg yolks
Thicken the mixture and add richness as they warm.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the other ingredients blend into.
Chocolate
Gives the dessert its chocolate flavor and color.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the chocolate.

The step that matters

Stir briskly for 3 minutes, then remove from heat.. Egg yolks thicken as they warm, but too much heat can scramble them. Steady stirring spreads the heat evenly, and removing the pan from heat stops the cooking before the custard curdles.

“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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