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 Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Bring the milk to a boil in a saucepan.
Stir in the sweet chocolate, beaten eggs, and corn starch.
Boil the mixture until it thickens.
Finish and freeze
Let it cool, then add the rich cream and vanilla.
Freeze the mixture until firm.
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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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,020 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,943 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,466 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Thicken the base as they set when heated, giving the ice cream a smooth, rich body.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the chocolate mixture when boiled, giving it body without heavy eggs alone.
- Rich cream
- Adds fat, which makes the frozen ice cream smooth and tender rather than icy.
- Sweet chocolate
- Provides the main flavor and adds some fat to the custard base.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture until it thickens. Egg proteins and starch must be heated enough to thicken the base, but overheating can curdle the eggs. Stop once the custard coats a spoon.
“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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