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Dessert

Chocolate Tarts

A chocolate tart filling made with eggs, chocolate, cornstarch, milk, sugar, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Chocolate Tarts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate filling

  1. Rub the chocolate smooth in the milk. Heat to boiling.

  2. Stir in the cornstarch and cook for 5 minutes until thickened. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl.

Combine and finish

  1. Beat the yolks and whites of 2 eggs with the sugar until well combined.

  2. Add the chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and mix well.

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. Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  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

Eggs
Yolks thicken and enrich the filling, while whites add lightness and structure.
Cornstarch
Thickens the chocolate mixture as it heats and sets into a smooth custard.
Baker's chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and body of the filling.
Milk
Liquid that melts the chocolate smooth and forms the base of the filling.
White sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the eggs combine smoothly.

The step that matters

Cooking the cornstarch mixture until thickened. Cornstarch needs to reach a boil and cook for several minutes to fully swell and thicken. Undercooked starch leaves the filling thin and grainy-tasting, so the mixture should be stirred steadily while it cooks.

“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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