Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Chocolate Loaf
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the chocolate and dry ingredients
Melt the chocolate with ⅓ cup of milk over low heat until dissolved, then set aside to cool.
Sift the flour once, then measure and sift again with baking soda three times.
Make the batter
Cream the butter with the remaining sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat the egg yolks until thick and stir into the butter mixture.
Whip the egg whites to a foam, add cream of tartar, and whip until stiff peaks form.
Combine the melted chocolate with the remaining milk and stir well.
Add the chocolate mixture to the butter mixture, then gradually add the flour, stirring vigorously.
Gently fold in the whipped egg whites until just combined.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake at 300°F (150°C) until a toothpick comes out clean.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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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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Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,466 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Eggs
- Whipped whites trap air for lift, while yolks add richness and structure to the crumb.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds fat for a tender texture.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the loaf together as it bakes.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the loaf and helps the creamed butter hold air for a light texture.
- Chocolate
- Gives the loaf its flavor and color.
- Cream of tartar
- Stabilizes the whipped egg whites so they hold stiff peaks.
The step that matters
Folding in the whipped egg whites. Egg whites hold the lift in this batter, and stirring them vigorously knocks out the trapped air. Fold gently and only until combined so the loaf rises well.
“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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