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Drink

Chocolate or Cocoa

A warm chocolate drink made with chocolate, sugar, water, milk, and topped with whipped cream or marshmallow.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 or Cocoa

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate base

  1. Mix the chocolate and sugar together in a bowl.

  2. Add the water and bring to a boil until dissolved.

Add the milk and serve

  1. Stir in the rich milk and heat until hot, but do not boil.

  2. Serve topped with whipped cream or a marshmallow.

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. Chocolate + sugartop 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. Milk + creamtop 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

Chocolate
Provides the cocoa flavour and cocoa fat that give the drink its taste and body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the chocolate dissolve smoothly into the hot water.
Rich milk
Adds creaminess and body through its fat and milk solids.

The step that matters

Heat the milk without boiling it. Milk that boils can scorch on the base of the pan and form a skin on the surface. Gentle heat keeps the drink smooth and fresh-tasting.

“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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