Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Cream Meringue

A dessert of chocolate custard topped with baked meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 Meringue

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk.

  2. Stir in the grated chocolate until melted.

  3. Mix the sugar and corn starch together.

  4. Stir into the chocolate milk rapidly.

  5. Remove from heat.

  6. Add the egg yolks, vanilla, and salt, mixing well.

Top and bake

  1. Beat egg whites until stiff.

  2. Spread on top.

  3. Bake the meringue until light and white.

  4. Sprinkle with crimson sugar before serving.

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. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the custard sets in.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth custard.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the custard, adding richness and body.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that forms the light, browned meringue topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps the meringue stay stable and glossy.

The step that matters

Stir the sugar and corn starch into the hot milk rapidly. Corn starch clumps when it hits hot liquid unless it is dispersed evenly with sugar first and stirred vigorously. Clumps leave lumps in the custard that cannot be smoothed out afterward.

“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.

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesCorn CakeCorn Cake90 recipesCorn Starch CakeCorn Starch Cake89 recipes