Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. 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 pudding
Scald the milk in a saucepan.
Add the bread crumbs and chocolate to the milk.
Remove from heat and stir in ½ cup sugar and the beaten egg yolks.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 15 minutes.
Top and serve
Beat the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add 3 tablespoons sugar.
Spread the meringue on top of the pudding and brown it in the oven.
Serve with cream.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,466 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,128 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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 that softens the bread crumbs and sets into the custard.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb the milk and give the pudding a soft, body-filled texture.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken and enrich the pudding as they set during baking.
- Chocolate
- Provides the main flavour and colour of the pudding.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a stiff meringue that gives a light, browned topping.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be beaten until they hold stiff peaks, and sugar added gradually, so the meringue stays glossy and stable while it browns in the oven.
“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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