Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Chocolate Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Grate the chocolate and pour the cream over it.
Let it stand until dissolved, then boil slowly for 10 minutes.
Beat the egg yolks well with the sugar and mix with the cream.
Cook and chill
Pour the mixture into cups and place them in a stew-pan of boiling water, half-submerging them.
Simmer for 20 minutes with the cover on.
When done, place the cups on ice.
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.
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,466 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Chocolate + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,448 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chocolate
- Provides the flavour and dark colour, and melts into the cream to make it rich.
- Cream
- Adds fat and moisture, giving the dessert a smooth, rich texture.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the mixture as they set, giving the cream its firm, custard-like body.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dessert and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.
The step that matters
Cooking the cups in the water bath. Egg yolks set gently at moderate heat; if the water boils hard or the cups cook too long, the custard can curdle, turn grainy, or become rubbery. Keeping the water at a gentle simmer with the cover on keeps the texture 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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