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Dessert

Chocolate Custards

A sweet dessert made by cooking milk, chocolate, and eggs into a thick custard, served chilled with whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Chocolate Custards

Why it works: Chocolate and sugar 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 Custards

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the custard

  1. Scald the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Add the grated chocolate and sugar to the milk, stirring until dissolved.

  3. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks.

  4. Mix the cornstarch with a little cold milk and add it to the egg yolks.

  5. Pour the chocolate milk mixture over the egg yolks and return to the heat.

  6. Cook while stirring constantly until thickened, about 5 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Let the mixture cool, then add any desired flavoring and pour into small glasses.

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then fold in the powdered sugar and heap on top of the custards.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Chocolate + sugartop 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 + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the custard sets into.
Cornstarch
Thickens the custard as its starch swells when heated.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard as proteins set; whites form the light, stiff topping.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavor and richness of the custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves into the warm milk.

The step that matters

Cook while stirring constantly until thickened. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if overheated, and the starch can scorch on the bottom. Constant stirring spreads 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.

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