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Drink

Cocoa

A hot beverage made with boiling water, cocoa, sugar, milk, egg white, vanilla, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Cocoa

Why it works: Cocoa and vanilla work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 357 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Cocoa

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pot, combine boiling water, cocoa, and castor sugar; boil slowly for 10 minutes.

  2. Add boiling milk, beaten egg white, vanilla extract, and salt; mix thoroughly.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Cocoa + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together357 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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

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

  4. Cocoa + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together643 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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

Cocoa
Provides the chocolate flavor and body of the drink.
Egg white
Adds a light foam and body to the hot cocoa when mixed in.
Milk
Supplies creaminess and richness to the drink.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the drink and balances the bitterness of the cocoa.

The step that matters

Boil the cocoa mixture slowly for 10 minutes. Cocoa powder needs heat and time in liquid to hydrate and release its flavor. Boiling it briefly leaves a raw, dusty taste, while holding it at a slow boil keeps the cocoa smooth and dispersed.

Swap the cocoa

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

  1. Almondfits about as well
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Cocoathe original
  4. Hazelnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, egg, vanilla. 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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