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Dessert

Chocolate Mould

A chocolate dessert set in a mould using milk, sugar, gelatin, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Chocolate Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate mixture

  1. Soak the gelatine and sugar in ½ cup of milk in a basin.

  2. Boil the remaining 1½ cups of milk with the grated chocolate.

  3. Pour the hot chocolate mixture onto the gelatine and sugar.

  4. Flavour with vanilla and stir until the gelatine is dissolved.

Set and unmould

  1. Set the mixture in a mould rinsed with cold water.

  2. Once firm, dip the mould in warm water and turn it onto a dish.

  3. If desired, set in dariole moulds.

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 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. 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).

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

Chocolate
Provides the main flavour and, as it melts into the milk, gives the set mould its body.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid mixture into a firm mould that holds its shape when turned out.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that carries the chocolate and softens the set texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the mould and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Stirring in the gelatine until dissolved. Gelatine must fully dissolve in the hot mixture; any undissolved granules leave weak spots and uneven setting, so the mould may not hold its shape.

“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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