Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Custard

A custard made with eggs, sugar, chocolate, milk, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Beat the egg whites and yolks separately.

  2. Add the sugar to the yolks and stir in the beaten whites.

  3. Dissolve the chocolate in the hot milk.

  4. Add the cream to the chocolate mixture and bring to a boil.

  5. Pour the hot mixture over the egg mixture, stirring constantly.

Thicken and serve

  1. Strain the custard into a pitcher.

  2. Place the pitcher in boiling water and stir constantly until thickened.

  3. Serve in glasses and chill before eating.

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

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

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the custard as they set with heat, and whites add lightness.
White sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps keep the yolks smooth while they are mixed.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavor and, once dissolved, the rich color of the custard.
Heavy cream
Adds fat, which gives the custard a smooth, rich texture.

The step that matters

Pour the hot mixture over the egg mixture, stirring constantly. Egg proteins set at around 70°C and can scramble if hot liquid hits the yolks too fast or unstirred. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly so the custard thickens smoothly.

“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.

More chocolate custard recipes

Pie 12Cake 9Pudding 8Frozen 6Baked 5 See all 198 →

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesChocolate FudgeChocolate Fudge55 recipesChocolate Drop CookiesChocolate Drop Cookies50 recipes