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Dessert

Chocolate Shape

A chilled chocolate gelatin dessert made with milk, grated chocolate, sugar, gelatin, egg yolks, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 Shape

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mousse base

  1. Soak the gelatine in a little of the milk.

  2. Boil the remaining milk and dissolve the grated chocolate in it, boiling for a few minutes.

  3. Add the soaked gelatine and stir until dissolved.

  4. Stir in the sugar and let the mixture cool slightly.

  5. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time.

  6. Add the vanilla essence and pour into a wet mold.

Garnish

  1. Garnish with blanched almonds and whipped cream sprinkled with pink sugar.

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. Milk + chocolatetop 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

Gelatine
Sets the mousse so it holds its shape when cooled.
Grated chocolate
Provides the main flavour and rich body of the mousse.
Egg yolks
Add richness and emulsify with the chocolate for a smooth, creamy texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the chocolate dissolves into and carries the gelatine.
Sugar
Sweetens the mousse and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Beating in the egg yolks. Yolks added to a mixture that is too hot can scramble, leaving lumps. Letting the mixture cool slightly first and adding yolks one at a time lets them blend smoothly into the chocolate base.

“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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