Vandchokolade

"¼ pound of finest chocolate is broken into small pieces and melted in 1 tablespoon of water in a bowl over a teapot, after which it is stirred into 1 pint of water, add 1 ounce of white sugar and place in a tall pot over the fire. As soon as it comes to a boil and has boiled for 5 minutes while stirring, put 2 egg yolks in a small cup of cold water and whisk them until foamy. Remove the chocolate and pour it gradually into the egg yolks while stirring, then put it back on the fire, where it is whisked with an egg whisk until it is nearly boiling, then remove it, whisk for another 5 minutes, and serve."

The original recipe’s methodology is descriptive and expects some kitchen intuition—for example, it gives time cues ('kogt i 5 Minutter'), highlights manual processes ('piskes deri til Skum'), and uses now-archaic Danish spellings and units ('Pund,' 'Unze,' 'Potte'). Ingredients are measured by weight (pound, ounce) and volume (pint, spoon), following the conventions of the period, and using terms then in common Scandinavian-American kitchens. This style of instructive, stepwise prose was designed for home cooks with a basic repertoire of skills, and the lack of standardized temperatures or precise kitchen technology required cooks to rely heavily on personal judgment and experience.