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Dessert

Chocolate Pudding

A chocolate pudding made with milk, sugar, chocolate, corn starch, egg whites, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Scald the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Melt the chocolate and thin it with the heated milk.

  3. In a bowl, mix the corn starch, sugar, and salt, then slowly add the scalded milk.

  4. Cook the mixture in a double boiler, stirring constantly until thick.

Finish and chill

  1. Remove from heat and let it cool slightly, then fold in the beaten egg whites and vanilla.

  2. Pour the mixture into molds and chill.

  3. Serve plain or with whipped cream.

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. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

Corn starch
Thickens the milk mixture as it cooks, giving the pudding its body.
Egg whites
Folded in beaten, they add lightness and a softer, airier texture.
Baker's chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and richness, and colours the pudding.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens into the pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Cooking the mixture in the double boiler. Stirring constantly keeps the starch from settling and scorching, and cooking until thick fully gelatinizes the cornstarch so the pudding sets properly when chilled.

“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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