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Dessert

Mottled Chocolate Cream

A chilled chocolate and vanilla cream made with gelatin, eggs, and melted chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Mottled Chocolate Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water for at least 1 hour.

  2. Fill the cup with boiling water and keep hot until dissolved.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs with half of the sugar, then pour in the boiling milk.

  2. Cook the mixture until it thickens, stirring constantly.

  3. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then slowly pour the hot mixture into them while stirring briskly.

  4. Add the dissolved gelatine and vanilla extract, then divide the mixture into two parts.

  5. Stir the melted chocolate into one part of the mixture.

  6. Allow both mixtures to cool, stirring occasionally.

Mold and set

  1. Pour a little of the dark mixture into a mold and let it partially harden, then add some of the light mixture, repeating until all is used.

  2. Keep the unused mixture warm to prevent hardening.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Gelatine
Sets the cream so it holds its shape when chilled and unmolded.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the milk custard and whites add lightness through their foam.
Sugar
Sweetens the cream and helps stabilise the beaten egg whites.
Milk
Forms the creamy base that the eggs thicken into custard.
Baker's chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and colours one part of the mixture dark.

The step that matters

Keep the unused mixture warm. If the mixture cools too much while the layers are being poured, the gelatine sets early and the dark and light parts will not blend into a marbled pattern.

“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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