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Dessert

Chocolate Custabd

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 Custabd

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Beat the egg whites and yolks separately.

  2. Mix the sugar into the yolks, then fold in the beaten whites.

Make the custard

  1. Dissolve the chocolate in the hot milk.

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

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

  4. Strain the custard into a pitcher.

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

Serve

  1. Serve in glasses and enjoy cold.

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. Cream + milktop 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 cook, while the whites add lightness and structure.
White sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilize the beaten egg whites.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavour and deep colour of the custard.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the custard a smooth, velvety texture.
Milk
Melts the chocolate and provides the liquid base that sets into the custard.

The step that matters

Stirring the custard over boiling water until thickened. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat and can curdle or scramble if overheated. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly so the custard thickens smoothly rather than becoming 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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