Submarino

Ingredients

The drink

• 300 mlwhole milk
• 1bar or 2 thick fingers of semi-sweet chocolate, 40 to 50 g, at least 50 per cent cocoa
• 1 tspsugar, optional and usually unnecessary

Equipment

• a tall heatproof glass or a heavy mug
• a long spoon

To serve

• 3medialunas or a few vanilla biscuits
• a dusting of cinnamon, optional

Directions

1. Choose a chocolate that melts cleanly: a plain semi-sweet bar of about 50 to 60 per cent, not a filled or a very high-cocoa bar, which seizes into grains in milk.
2. Warm the tall glass with hot water and tip it out, so the milk does not lose heat on contact.
3. Heat the milk in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring, until it steams and the surface trembles, around 75 to 80°C (175°F). Do not let it boil: boiled milk skins over and tastes flat.
4. Pour the hot milk into the warmed glass, filling it to about 3 cm from the rim.
5. Bring the glass and the unwrapped chocolate bar to the table together, still separate. The point of the drink is that it is finished by the person drinking it.
6. Slide the bar into the milk so it sinks like a submarine, which is where the name comes from, and leave it for 60 to 90 seconds while it softens.
7. Stir with a long spoon, pressing the bar against the side of the glass, for a minute or so, until it has dissolved completely and the milk has turned even brown with no streaks.
8. Drink hot, with medialunas for dunking. If the chocolate refuses to dissolve, the milk was not hot enough; do not microwave it, just stir longer against the glass.

Technique

• The submarino is an Argentine cafe institution, not simply hot chocolate. It is served as milk plus bar, and children are given it precisely so they can do the sinking and stirring themselves.
• It is distinct from the thicker chocolatada, which is made with cocoa powder and sugar and comes ready mixed. A submarino tastes of the specific bar you drop in it.
• Whole milk matters. Skimmed milk cannot carry the cocoa butter and the drink separates into a greasy film on top.

Substitutions

• No suitable bar: use 40 g of chopped good dark chocolate stirred into the hot milk, though you lose the ritual. Chocolate blanco makes a submarino blanco for children.

Variations

• Submarino con crema floats a spoon of whipped cream on the surface before the bar goes in.
• Adding a shot of espresso to the milk gives the cafe version sometimes called submarino cortado.

History

A cafe order across Argentina, named for the way the bar sinks and slowly dissolves in the milk.

Frequently asked questions

What is Submarino?

Submarino is a drink from Argentina: bar of chocolate dropped into a glass of hot milk and stirred in. A cafe order across Argentina, named for the way the bar sinks and slowly dissolves in the milk.

How long does Submarino take to make?

Submarino takes 3 min of preparation and 6 min of cooking. The recipe makes 1 tall glass. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Submarino?

Yes, within limits. No suitable bar: use 40 g of chopped good dark chocolate stirred into the hot milk, though you lose the ritual. Chocolate blanco makes a submarino blanco for children.

What is the most important thing to get right in Submarino?

Heat the milk in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring, until it steams and the surface trembles, around 75 to 80°C (175°F). Do not let it boil: boiled milk skins over and tastes flat.