Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Plum Pudding

A gelatin-based pudding made with chocolate, milk, raisins, currants, and optional whipped cream or egg‑white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate base

  1. Soak the gelatin in the cold water.

  2. Heat the milk in a double boiler.

  3. Melt the chocolate and add it to the milk along with the sugar and salt.

  4. Scald the mixture and remove it from the heat.

Set the pudding

  1. Add the soaked gelatin and stir until it begins to set.

  2. Fold in the fruit and vanilla.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the white of one egg until stiff.

  2. Gradually add 1 tablespoon confectioner's sugar and ½ cup milk.

  3. Flavor with vanilla.

  4. Serve with whipped cream or the 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. Vanilla + milktop 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 + nutstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together638 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  5. Chocolate + nutstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together440 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid milk mixture into a sliceable, firm pudding structure.
Chocolate
Gives the pudding its main flavor and a rich, dense body.
Milk
Provides the liquid base and creamy body of the pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.
Seeded raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated fruity sweetness throughout the pudding.
Currants
Add small bursts of tart fruitiness and chewy texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the fruit as the gelatine begins to set. If the gelatine is not fully dissolved or the mixture is too cold and thick, the fruit cannot be folded evenly and may sink or cluster. Stirring until the mixture just starts to set keeps the fruit suspended evenly.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vanilla, chocolate, raisin, milk, nuts):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vanilla, chocolate, raisin, milk, nuts. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesRed Currant JellyRed Currant Jelly65 recipes