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
Dissolve the chocolate gently by the fire in the water until smooth.
Boil the mixture, then add the milk flavored with lemon peel or vanilla and sugar.
Once boiling, stir in the well-beaten eggs that have been strained.
Cook and serve
Pour the custard into a jar or jug and place it in a pan of boiling water.
Stir continuously until the custard thickens.
Let it cool before serving in glasses or a dish.
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.
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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 + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Coagulate on gentle heat, thickening the custard and giving it a set structure.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base and creamy body of the custard.
- Best chocolate
- Supplies the chocolate flavor and color that define the custard.
- Fine 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 as they heat, and if the custard gets too hot or is left unstirred it can curdle or turn grainy. Gentle, constant stirring over indirect heat keeps it smooth and evenly thickened.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chocolate, milk, sugar, egg, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Raspberryfits better
- 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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