Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 Cream a LA Colbert
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cream base
Boil the cream with the sugar until reduced to 1 quart.
Melt the chocolate over a slow fire in the water.
Mix the melted chocolate with the cream and the soaked gelatine.
Strain the mixture through a cloth into a basin.
Set and finish
Stir on ice until it begins to set.
Fold in the well-whipped cream.
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.
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,466 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cream
- Forms the rich body of the dessert and carries the chocolate flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cream and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.
- Chocolate
- Provides the main flavour and, as it cools, helps give the dessert its firm body.
- Gelatine
- Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when chilled.
- Well-whipped cream
- Adds lightness and airiness to the set mixture.
The step that matters
Stir on ice until it begins to set. Gelatine sets as it cools, so the mixture must be stirred just until it thickens. If it sets fully before the whipped cream is folded in, it will be lumpy and dense instead of light.
“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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