Name: Colonial Cream — of Coffee, Chocolate, Vanilla, and Caramel
Ingredients: ¼ pound fresh-ground coffee; 1 quart milk; 2 tablespoons caramel; 6 egg yolks; 1 tumbler water; pulverized chocolate (enough for 3 cups)

Why it works: Coffee and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,497 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells buttery, creamy. The science ↓

Colonial Cream — of Coffee, Chocolate, Vanilla, and Caramel

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the coffee in the milk with vanilla and caramel.
Remove from heat and strain the mixture.
Stir in the egg yolks.
Boil the water and add the pulverized chocolate, stirring until smooth.
Combine the chocolate mixture with the coffee custard.
Pour into a mold and chill in ice for 1.5 hours before serving.

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.

Coffee + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,497 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).
Coffee + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,202 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,128 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + chocolatetop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,448 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).