Name: Chocolate Pudding. No. 1
Ingredients: 1 quart milk; 3 tablespoons cornstarch; 3 tablespoons sugar; 1 egg, beaten lightly; 4 tablespoons vanilla chocolate, grated and dissolved in a little milk; whipped cream or boiled custard for serving

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 Pudding. No. 1

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

1 quart milk
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons sugar
1 egg, beaten lightly
4 tablespoons vanilla chocolate, grated and dissolved in a little milk
whipped cream or boiled custard for serving

Directions

Make the pudding

Combine milk, cornstarch, and sugar in a saucepan; cook until thickened.
Remove half of the mixture and flavor the removed mixture to taste.
To the remaining mixture, add the beaten egg and the dissolved chocolate.
Pour into a mold, alternating the dark and light mixtures.

Serve

Serve with whipped cream or boiled custard.

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.

Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,020 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,466 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

Cornstarch: Thickens the milk into a smooth pudding as it cooks.
Egg: Adds richness and helps set the pudding as it firms.
Vanilla chocolate: Provides the chocolate flavor and darkens the portion it is added to.

The step that matters

Cook the milk mixture until thickened. Cornstarch only thickens fully when the mixture reaches a simmer and is stirred, so cooking it too briefly leaves the pudding thin and runny.

“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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Chocolate Pudding. No. 1