Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓
Chocolate Cream Drops
Ingredients
Directions
Make the fondant
Mix the cream and sugar in a saucepan.
Boil and stir for 5 minutes.
Add vanilla to the cream mixture.
Set the saucepan in cold water and stir until the mixture thickens enough to form small balls.
Coat and cool
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a boiling kettle.
Roll each cream ball in the melted chocolate using a fork.
Place the chocolate-covered drops on paper to cool.
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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Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,020 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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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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Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,466 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
- Cream
- Provides fat and moisture, giving the centres a soft, smooth texture.
- Sugar
- Dissolves and cooks into the base, providing sweetness and body for the drops to set.
- Chocolate
- Forms the outer coating that adds flavour and a firm shell around the soft centre.
The step that matters
Stirring while the mixture cools. Stirring as the cooked sugar syrup cools encourages small sugar crystals to form, giving a smooth, creamy texture. Stirring too early or too little can leave the mixture grainy or too soft to shape into balls.
“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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