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Dessert

Chocolate Cream

A chocolate custard made with milk, eggs, and chocolate, thickened with corn flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Chocolate Cream

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Dissolve the chocolate in a few tablespoons of water over low heat until it forms a thick, smooth paste.

  2. Add the milk, vanilla, and sugar, and bring to a boil.

  3. Thicken the milk with the corn flour, then remove from heat to cool slightly.

  4. Beat the eggs well and gradually stir them into the thickened chocolate mixture.

  5. Return the mixture to low heat, stirring gently without allowing it to boil until well thickened.

Cool and serve

  1. Let the cream cool, then serve in custard glasses or pour over sponge cakes or macaroons.

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

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

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

Vanilla and sugar 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

Eggs
Thicken the custard as they set when gently heated, giving it body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the custard thickens into a creamy texture.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavour and colour, and is melted into a smooth paste first.
Corn flour
Starch that thickens the milk, giving the custard a smooth, stable body.

The step that matters

Return the mixture to low heat without boiling. Egg proteins set when heated, but if the custard gets too hot or boils it can curdle and turn grainy. Gentle, steady stirring keeps it smooth and thick.

“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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