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Dessert

Chocolate Custard

A custard made with sweet milk, brown sugar, egg yolks, chocolate, flour, and folded egg whites, baked until set.

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

Chocolate Custard

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the custard

  1. Combine sweet milk, brown sugar, egg yolks, chocolate, and flour in a saucepan.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened.

Add the meringue and bake

  1. Beat egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff peaks form, then gradually add sugar.

  2. Fold the beaten egg whites into the chocolate mixture.

  3. Pour into a baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.

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 + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they cook and add richness to the mixture.
Egg whites
Whipped into stiff peaks, they add airy lightness and help the custard set and rise.
Flour
Thickens the chocolate mixture so it holds its shape when cooked.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses flavour that complements the chocolate.
Chocolate
Provides the main chocolate flavour and colour of the custard.

The step that matters

Cook the custard until thickened. Stirring constantly over medium heat keeps the egg yolks and flour from scorching or lumping, and the mixture must thicken fully so it can hold the folded egg whites and set in the oven.

“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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