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 Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the chocolate base
Scrape the chocolate finely and dissolve it in enough water.
Place the mixture in a marble mortar and beat for 30 minutes.
Add fine sugar to sweeten and 1½ pints of cream, then mill the mixture.
Froth and serve
As froth rises, lay it on a sieve.
Pour the remaining cream into glasses and top with the frothed 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.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,466 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Chocolate + sugartop 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
- Best chocolate
- Provides the main chocolate flavor and the body of the mixture.
- Cream
- Adds richness and fat, giving a smooth, soft texture and a foam for the top.
- Fine sugar
- Sweetens the chocolate and balances its bitterness.
The step that matters
Frothing the mixture. Beating and milling trap air in the mixture, and that air forms the froth. Lifting the froth off as it rises keeps the foam separate from the denser liquid below.
“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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