A cream earthenware cup and saucer of lightly frothy brown milk chocolate sit beside a white basin of glossy melted chocolate with a ridged wooden stirrer resting across it on a pine kitchen table. — A cup of chocolate made with milk, beside a basin of melted chocolate and a wooden stirrer.

Rundell’s Chocolate, a Breakfast or Supper Cup from 1806

Name: Rundell's Chocolate
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 20 min
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 100 g dark chocolate, about 70% cocoa solids; 300 ml water; 4 tbsp melted chocolate; 200 ml whole milk; 2 tsp white sugar, or to taste

Jump to recipe

A cake of chocolate melted into boiling water and kept in a basin, then a spoonful or two boiled up in milk with sugar and whisked to a froth: the hot chocolate of Maria Rundell’s 1806 household cookery book.

By Forgotten DrinkPublished October 25, 2026

Recipe makes: About 330 ml chocolate, enough for 5 cups
Prep: 5 min
Cook: 15 min
Total: 20 min

About 15 minutes to make the chocolate, then 5 minutes for each cup.

Jump to recipe Read the story

A cup of chocolate made with milk, beside a basin of melted chocolate and a wooden stirrer.

The story behind the recipe

Maria Rundell made her chocolate in two stages: a whole cake melted into boiling water and kept in a basin, then a spoonful or two boiled up in milk with sugar whenever a cup was wanted. It was a way for households “who use much of this article” to have chocolate ready, and she called it “both useful and economical.” Thin, she said, it made “a very good breakfast or supper.”

A cup for the household

Her New System of Domestic Cookery, first published in London in 1806, was written for the mistress of an ordinary English house and sold in great numbers. The chocolate sits in the chapter called “Cookery for the Sick,” between a soft egg-and-milk draught for a cough and her method for coffee, but nothing in the recipe is medicinal; it is simply the way a house made its chocolate.

It is also the kind of cup that went to sea. When the Admiralty rewrote the sailor’s rations in 1824, a daily ounce of cocoa was on the list beside the bread, beer and beef. No naval book of the time says how the ship’s cooks made it, so this is a household cup of the same years, not a ship’s recipe; the story of that ration, and of the pint of tea that came with it, is in Half the Grog and a Pint of Tea.

Making it today

Rundell’s “cake of chocolate” was a block of ground, pressed cocoa, so we use a dark chocolate of about 70 percent. She “mills” the chocolate: in her day a wooden mill turned between the palms, the same tool as the Spanish molinillo, and a small balloon whisk does the job. The older Spanish way, with spices and the chocolate frothed in hot water alone, is Colmenero’s Spiced Chocolate.

Chocolate. Those who use much of this article, will find the following mode of preparing both useful and economical. Cut a cake of chocolate in very small bits; put a pint of water into the pot, and, when it boils, put in the above; mill it off the fire until quite melted, then on a gentle fire till it boil; pour it into a basin, and it will keep in a cool place eight or ten days, or more. When wanted, put a spoonful or two into milk, boil it with sugar, and mill it well. This, if not made thick, is a very good breakfast or supper.

Maria RundellA New System of Domestic Cookery (1806), pp. 258–259

Read the full story

Ingredients

For About 330 ml chocolate, enough for 5 cups. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for About 330 ml chocolate, enough for 5 cups.

Melted chocolate

Dark chocolate, about 70% cocoa solids100 g
Water300 ml

For each cup

Melted chocolate4 metric tbsp (15 ml per tbsp)
Whole milk200 ml
White sugar, or to taste2 metric tsp (5 ml per tsp)

Ingredients as written here

100 g dark chocolate, about 70% cocoa solids
300 ml water
4 tbsp melted chocolate
200 ml whole milk
2 tsp white sugar, or to taste

Equipment

Small saucepan
Wooden chocolate whisk (molinillo) or a small balloon whisk
Heatproof bowl or jug
Mug

Instructions

Chop the dark chocolate into very small pieces.
Bring the water to the boil in the small saucepan. Take it off the heat, add the chocolate and whisk until it has quite melted.
Put the pan back on a low heat and bring it just to the boil, whisking. Pour it into the heatproof bowl or jug.
For each cup, put the melted chocolate, the whole milk and the white sugar in the rinsed saucepan. Bring to the boil over a medium heat, whisking.
Take it off the heat and whisk hard, or roll the molinillo between your palms, until the top is frothy. Pour into the mug and drink hot.

Nutrition

260calories per serving

Recipe makes: About 330 ml chocolate, enough for 5 cups
Servings: 5

Roughly estimated from USDA FoodData Central values for 70% dark chocolate, whole milk and granulated sugar, for one cup.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

The chocolate makes about five cups. The cup ingredients are for one.

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the batch.

Changes from the source: her “cake of chocolate” has no weight, and her pint of water is about 570 ml; we use 100 g of dark chocolate in 300 ml of water, which keeps it thick enough to measure by the spoonful. She takes “a spoonful or two” for a cup, with no amount of milk; our four tablespoons to 200 ml of milk is a little stronger, and can be cut back to make it thinner, as she preferred. She keeps the chocolate in a cool place for “eight or ten days, or more”; we keep it in the fridge instead.

Storage

Keep the melted chocolate covered in the fridge, and make each cup fresh.

Scaling changes the ingredients only; glassware, ice and timings need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.