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Dessert

Chocolate Custard

A baked custard made with milk, chocolate, eggs, sugar, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 Custard

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the custard

  1. Scald the milk and stir in the chocolate until dissolved.

  2. Cool slightly.

  3. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar and stir into the milk and chocolate mixture.

  4. Add the vanilla.

  5. Pour into cups.

  6. Place the cups in a baking dish with 1 inch of water around them.

  7. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven until set.

Top and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites with the sugar.

  2. Spread on the custard.

  3. Brown in the oven.

  4. 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.

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. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that sets into the custard.
Egg yolks
Thicken and set the custard as they cook, giving it a rich texture.
Egg whites
Beaten into a meringue that browns on top of the custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps the meringue hold its structure.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavour and colour of the custard.

The step that matters

Bake in a water bath until set. Baking the cups in a dish of water keeps the outside gentle so the egg yolks set evenly without curdling or becoming grainy. Overheating causes the custard to weep or turn rough.

“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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