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Dessert

Chocolate Loaf

A chocolate loaf made with grated chocolate, sweet milk, eggs, sugar, butter, flour, and baking soda, baked at 300°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Chocolate Loaf

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Chocolate Loaf

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard

  1. Combine grated chocolate, ¾ cup sweet milk, egg yolk, and ¾ cup sugar in a saucepan.

  2. Boil until it thickens into a custard, then cool.

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix 1 cup sugar, ¾ cup butter, beaten eggs, and ¾ cup sweet milk.

  2. Dissolve baking soda in a little hot water and add to the mixture.

  3. Stir in the flour until well combined.

  4. Fold in the cooled custard.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake at 300°F until a toothpick comes out clean.

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Chocolate
Provides the main flavor and, with the custard, adds richness and moisture to the loaf.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the loaf sets in the oven.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the loaf together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter to produce gas that helps the loaf rise.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the loaf moist and tender.

The step that matters

Cool the custard before folding it in. Adding hot custard to the batter can melt the butter and loosen the mixture, so the loaf may bake unevenly and turn out dense. Cooling it first keeps the batter's texture stable.

“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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