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Dessert

Chocolate Custard

A chocolate custard made with Spanish chocolate, milk, sugar, salt, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 ↓

Chocolate Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chocolate

  1. Rasp the chocolate and make a paste with a small amount of water.

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk in a pot.

  2. Add sugar and salt to the boiling milk.

  3. Beat the chocolate with some of the boiling milk until well mixed.

  4. Pour the chocolate mixture into the boiling milk while stirring continuously.

  5. Add the beaten egg yolks and stir until the mixture thickens.

Serve

  1. Once cool, pour the custard into glasses.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

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

Vanilla and sugar 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set and add richness and a smooth texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and carries the chocolate flavor.
Chocolate
Provides the main chocolate flavor and color of the custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken by coagulating when heated, but if the custard gets too hot or is boiled after they are added, the proteins can curdle and turn grainy. Stir steadily and keep the heat moderate once the yolks go in.

“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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