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Dessert

Chocolate Pudding

A baked custard made with milk, chocolate, eggs, sugar, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the chocolate base

  1. Boil the milk in a saucepan.

  2. While boiling, add the grated chocolate and stir for a few minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and let it cool slightly.

  4. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and then add them to the chocolate mixture.

  5. Sweeten to taste with sugar and add vanilla extract.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set, like a custard.

  2. Let it cool and frost if desired.

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Chocolate + sugartop 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).

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

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the pudding and carries the chocolate flavor.
Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the mixture and set it like a custard when baked.
Grated chocolate
Provides the main chocolate flavor and color of the pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Bake until set, like a custard. Egg proteins set with gentle heat and firm the pudding. Overbaking can make it curdle or turn grainy, so check that it is set but still slightly wobbly in the center.

“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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