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Dessert

Bavaroise of Chocolate

A chilled chocolate custard dessert set with gelatin, served in a mold and decorated with jelly and pistachio shreds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

Bavaroise of Chocolate

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Line a mold with jelly and decorate with shreds of pistachio nut or shamrocks.

Make the custard

  1. Dissolve the chocolate in a little milk.

  2. Add the rest of the milk and the egg yolks.

  3. Thicken the custard over low heat without boiling.

  4. Let the custard cool.

Combine and set

  1. Whip the cream lightly.

  2. Add the chocolate mixture, sugar, and flavorings to the whipped cream.

  3. Dissolve the gelatin in the water.

  4. Stir the dissolved gelatin into the mixture.

  5. Mold the mixture when it begins to thicken.

  6. Turn out the bavaroise when set.

  7. Arrange chopped jelly around the base.

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. Vanilla + rumtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together728 recipes

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

  4. Chocolate + rumtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together286 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
Cream
Adds richness and a light, airy body when whipped into the mixture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that carries the chocolate flavour.
Chocolate
Gives the bavaroise its main flavour and dark colour.
Leaf gelatine
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when turned out of the mold.

The step that matters

Thicken the custard over low heat without boiling. Egg yolks scramble and curdle if they get too hot, so gentle heat thickens the custard smoothly. Boiling would ruin its texture.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, chocolate, milk, egg, sugar, vanilla, rum. 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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