Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓
Cr6me Au Chocolat. — Chocolate Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cream
Scrape the chocolate and place it in a saucepan with sugar, milk, and cream.
Boil the mixture until one-third is consumed.
Let it cool slightly, then beat in the egg yolks.
Strain the mixture through a sieve.
Serve
Serve the cream as you would coffee cream.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 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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Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,128 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chocolate
- Provides the main flavour and deep colour of the cream.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the mixture as they gently set with heat, giving it a rich, smooth body.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cream and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.
- Cream
- Adds fat and richness, giving a smooth, velvety texture.
The step that matters
Beat in the egg yolks after cooling slightly. If the mixture is too hot when the yolks go in, they can scramble and turn grainy. Cooling slightly first lets the yolks thicken the cream smoothly, and straining afterward removes any small bits that do form.
“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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