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Dessert

Chocolate Creams

A chilled chocolate gelatin dessert made with gelatine, milk, chocolate, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 Creams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water for 1 hour.

  2. Boil the rich milk in a double boiler.

  3. Scrape the chocolate and mix with sugar.

  4. Wet the chocolate mixture with 2 tablespoons of boiling milk and rub to a smooth paste.

Make the custard

  1. Stir the chocolate paste into the boiling milk.

  2. Add the soaked gelatine and beaten egg yolks, stirring for 3 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and strain the mixture.

  4. Set the mixture in a pan of ice water and stir for 10 minutes.

  5. Add vanilla and pour into molds.

Chill and serve

  1. Chill in the refrigerator for 3 hours.

  2. Serve with sugar and cream.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

Gelatine
Sets the cooled cream so it holds its shape when unmolded.
Egg yolks
Thicken and enrich the custard, giving it a smooth, rich body.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavour and a deep color to the cream.
Rich milk
Forms the creamy base that the other ingredients set into.
Sugar
Sweetens the chocolate and balances its bitterness.

The step that matters

Stirring while the mixture cools in ice water. Stirring while the mixture cools keeps it smooth and even, so the gelatine and egg-thickened custard set uniformly instead of forming lumps or a grainy texture.

“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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