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Dessert

Chocolate Cream

Chocolate cream filling and frosting served in tart shells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Chocolate Cream

Why it works: Chocolate and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,404 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chocolate Cream

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the filling

  1. Cook the grated chocolate, sugar, egg yolks, and sweet milk over steam until thick.

  2. Fill tart shells with a spoonful of the mixture.

Make the topping

  1. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.

  2. Add grated chocolate, sugar, and lemon extract to the egg whites and mix well.

Bake and serve

  1. Spread the frosting evenly over the tarts.

  2. Place in a 350°F (175°C) oven to harden.

  3. Serve cold.

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. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Baker's chocolate
Provides the main chocolate flavor and firms the filling as it cools.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk mixture when gently heated, giving the filling body.
Egg whites
Whipped to a stiff froth, they trap air and lighten the topping.
Sweet milk
Provides the liquid that cooks with the yolks into a thick custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the whipped whites hold their structure.

The step that matters

Cook the filling over steam until thick. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but too much heat can curdle them. Gentle steam heat cooks the yolks slowly and evenly, giving a smooth, thick filling.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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