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Dessert

Rich Chocolate

A chocolate mousse made with grated chocolate, sugar, hot water, milk, vanilla, egg whites, cream, and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Rich Chocolate

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate base

  1. Grate the chocolate and combine it with the granulated sugar and hot water.

  2. Cook until smooth and glossy.

  3. Slowly beat in the hot milk.

Make the mousse

  1. Whip the cream until thick.

  2. Beat the egg whites until dry, then add the powdered sugar and fold in the whipped cream.

  3. Combine the cream mixture with the chocolate and add the vanilla.

  4. Beat while the cream is heating.

  5. Serve immediately with additional whipped 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.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

Chocolate
Provides the main flavour and, as it cools, firms the mousse for a rich body.
Egg whites
Whipped to foam, they lighten the mousse and give it an airy structure.
Cream
Whipped into the mixture, it adds fat and a silky, airy texture.
Milk
Blended into the chocolate to give the mousse a smooth, creamy base.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until dry. Egg whites must be whipped to stiff, dry peaks to hold air. Underwhipped or greasy whites collapse, and overbeaten whites turn grainy, so the mousse loses its lightness.

“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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