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Chocolate Farina

A chocolate pudding made with farina, milk, sugar, 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 Farina

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the farina or cornflour smoothly with a little milk.

  2. Heat the remaining milk, then add the sugar and chocolate in small pieces, stirring until dissolved.

  3. Pour the boiling milk mixture over the cornflour while stirring continuously.

  4. Return to the heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes, stirring continuously.

  5. Add vanilla to taste and pour into a mould rinsed with cold water.

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

Farina or cornflour
Thickens the milk into a set, spoonable pudding as it cooks.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavour and colour, and melts smoothly into the hot milk.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens into a creamy custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling milk over the starch while stirring continuously. Starch clumps if it meets hot liquid unevenly. Constant stirring spreads it through the milk so it thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps.

“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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