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Chocolate-cream Tarts

A tart filled with a chocolate milk custard topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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-cream Tarts

Oven, in the book's wordsA slack oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slack oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the chocolate cream

  1. Boil the milk with the grated chocolate and a little sugar.

  2. Mix the flour with the sugar, then beat the mixture into the boiling milk.

  3. Add the butter and beaten egg yolks.

  4. Remove from heat before the eggs cook.

  5. Flavour with vanilla.

Fill and bake

  1. Line deep tartlet pans with tart paste.

  2. Fill the pans with the chocolate cream.

  3. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven.

  4. Whip the egg whites.

  5. Add the caster sugar to make a meringue.

  6. Squeeze the meringue over the tops of the tarts.

  7. Put the tarts in a 400°F (200°C) oven until slightly coloured on top.

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

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

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

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 chocolate cream as they set, giving it a rich, smooth body.
Flour
Thickens the chocolate milk so the cream holds its shape when set.
Grated chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and dark colour of the cream.
Egg whites
Whipped with caster sugar into a meringue that topping and browns in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the cream.

The step that matters

Remove from heat before the eggs cook. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat, but if the custard gets too hot the proteins set and curdle, leaving a grainy texture instead of a smooth cream.

“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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