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Dessert

Chocolate Custards

A chocolate custard made by simmering chocolate, water, milk, sugar, eggs, and optional cream, then set in a water bath.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Chocolate Custards

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 ↓

Chocolate Custards

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Dissolve the chocolate gently over the fire in the water until smooth.

  2. Boil the mixture, then add the milk flavored with lemon peel or vanilla.

  3. Stir in the sugar and bring to a boil.

  4. Gradually stir the hot mixture into the beaten eggs that have been strained.

  5. Pour the custard into a jar or jug.

  6. Set the jar or jug in a pan of boiling water.

  7. Stir continuously until the custard thickens.

Serve

  1. Let it cool before serving in glasses or a dish.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Their proteins set when heated, thickening the custard into a soft, sliceable texture.
Milk
Provides the liquid base and creamy body that the egg proteins set within.
Chocolate
Supplies the main flavor and, as it melts, helps give the custard its rich color and body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Stir continuously while the custard thickens in the water bath. Egg proteins set at moderate heat, but if the custard gets too hot or sits unstirred, the eggs can curdle and turn grainy. Gentle, constant stirring in the hot water keeps the heat even so the custard sets smooth.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chocolate, milk, sugar, egg, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chocolate, milk, sugar, egg, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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