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Dessert

Sour Cream Filling

A creamy filling made with sour cream, eggs, sugar, chocolate, and walnuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Sour Cream Filling

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, stir together the eggs and sugar.

  2. Add the sour cream and cornstarch, and cook over low heat until thickened.

  3. Melt the chocolate over a double boiler, then add it to the mixture.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the chopped walnuts.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Chocolate + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  3. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set and thicken the filling as they cook, giving it body.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and tang, making the filling creamy and rich.
Cornstarch
Thickens the mixture as it heats, giving a smooth, firm texture.
Baker's chocolate
Adds bitter chocolate flavor and richness to the filling.
Chopped walnuts
Add crunch and nutty flavor that contrasts with the smooth filling.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat until thickened. Eggs and cornstarch thicken only with gentle heat; too much heat can curdle the eggs or leave the cornstarch lumpy, so stir steadily and keep the heat low.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, egg, chocolate, sugar):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Hazelnutfits better
  3. Pecansfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg, chocolate, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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