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 ↓
Chocolate Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the chocolate cream
Scrape the chocolate and add it to the boiling cream with the sugar.
Mill the mixture for several minutes, then pour it out.
Add the froth and serve
Once cool, add the beaten egg whites and whisk until frothy.
Place a clean hair sieve upside down on a dish.
Transfer the froth onto the sieve.
Pour the cream into glasses and top each with the froth.
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,466 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Chocolate + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,448 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Best chocolate
- Provides the chocolate flavour and dark colour of the cream.
- Cream
- Supplies fat and richness, giving the base a smooth, velvety texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.
- Egg whites
- Whisked into a foam that forms the light, airy topping.
The step that matters
Whisking the egg whites until frothy. Egg whites need to be cooled and whisked to a stable foam; if the cream is still hot the whites can cook or collapse, leaving a thin, runny topping instead of a light froth.
“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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