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Dessert

Chocolate Cornstarch Pudding

A sweet pudding made with milk, egg whites, cornstarch, vanilla, sugar, and chocolate, layered and served with cream or chocolate sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 Cornstarch Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding base

  1. Dissolve cornstarch in a little cold milk.

  2. Scald the remaining milk.

  3. Gradually add the cornstarch solution to the scalded milk, stirring constantly.

  4. Cook over medium heat until slightly thickened, then transfer to a double boiler and cook for 20 minutes.

Finish and layer

  1. Remove from heat and fold in the beaten egg whites.

  2. In a separate dish, mix a third of the pudding with the melted chocolate.

  3. Add vanilla to the remaining white pudding mixture.

  4. Layer the white pudding in a mold, followed by the chocolate mixture, and top with another layer of white pudding.

  5. Serve with cream or thick chocolate sauce.

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. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

Vanilla and sugar 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 set, smooth pudding as it heats.
Egg whites
Folded in at the end to lighten the pudding and add a soft, airy texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the cornstarch thickens into the pudding.
Chocolate
Gives the darker layer its flavor and color.

The step that matters

Adding the cornstarch solution to the scalded milk. Cornstarch clumps if it hits hot liquid unevenly or stops being stirred. Adding the slurry gradually while stirring constantly keeps the starch dispersed so the pudding thickens smoothly instead of lumping.

“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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