Name: Cocoa Shells
Ingredients: 2 ounces cocoa shells; 3 pints boiling water; cream or boiled milk; sugar to taste

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 ↓

Cocoa Shells

Ingredients

2 ounces cocoa shells
3 pints boiling water
cream or boiled milk
sugar to taste

Directions

Make the cocoa

Pour boiling water over cocoa shells.
Boil rapidly for 30 to 40 minutes.
Let it settle.

Serve

Add cream or boiled milk and sugar to taste.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Cocoa + creamtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together304 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Cocoa + sugartop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together956 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cocoa shells: Provide the cocoa flavour that gives the drink its character when steeped and boiled.
Cream or boiled milk: Adds richness and body, softening the bitterness of the cocoa.
Sugar: Adds sweetness, balancing the bitter notes of the cocoa.