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Dessert

Chocolate Custard.— No. 2

A sweet milk custard flavored with vanilla chocolate and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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.— No. 2

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the milk.

  2. Stir in the grated chocolate until smooth.

  3. Lightly beat the eggs and sweeten them.

  4. Add the eggs to the boiling chocolate.

  5. Stir well to prevent curdling.

  6. Pour the mixture through a sieve.

  7. Return to heat for a few minutes to thicken.

  8. If it curdles, let it cool.

  9. Sieve again.

  10. Add ½ cup fresh milk.

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. Vanilla + chocolatetop 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. 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).

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 heated, giving it body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the chocolate and eggs are combined into.
Vanilla chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and colour, and melts smoothly into the hot milk.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs to the boiling chocolate. Egg proteins set when they meet high heat, so they can curdle into lumps if added too fast or without stirring. Stirring well while adding them keeps the custard smooth.

“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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