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Dessert

Chocolat Bavaroise a LA Casino

A chocolate bavaroise dessert made with gelatine, sweet jelly, pistachios, almonds, chocolate, milk, lemon rind, sugar, cinnamon, egg yolks, whipped cream, and rum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Pistachio and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 693 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Chocolat Bavaroise a LA Casino

Ingredients

Directions

Line the mould

  1. Coat a wet mould with sweet jelly and decorate with pistachio nuts and almonds.

  2. Dissolve the gelatine in the jelly, then add the cream and rum, coloring it pale pink with carmine.

  3. Pour this mixture into the mould, ensuring it covers the inside completely.

Make the chocolate custard

  1. Dissolve the chocolate in the milk, then add lemon rind, sugar, and cinnamon, simmering for a few minutes.

  2. Pour the chocolate mixture onto the egg yolks, return to the pan, add gelatine, and stir until thickened.

  3. Once cooled, add the whipped cream and vanilla essence, then pour into the mould.

Set and serve

  1. When set, turn out the dessert and decorate with fancifully cut pieces of jelly.

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. Pistachio + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Pistachio + nutstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together425 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Nuts + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together394 recipes

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

  4. Rum + chocolatetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together286 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Almond + chocolatetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,733 recipes

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

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 milk into a rich custard as they cook.
Gelatine
Sets the jelly and the chocolate cream so the dessert holds its shape when turned out.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavour and deep colour of the chocolate layer.
Whipped cream
Adds air and lightness, softening the texture of the chocolate layer.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the chocolate custard.

The step that matters

Thickening the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken when gently heated but can scramble if the mixture gets too hot. Pour the hot chocolate milk slowly onto the yolks and stir over low heat until it coats a spoon. Adding the gelatine only after this keeps the custard smooth.

Swap the nuts

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

  1. Hazelnutfits better
  2. Cashew nutfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pistachio, almond, cream, rum, chocolate, milk, sugar. 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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