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Corn Starch Chocolate Pudding

A chocolate pudding thickened with corn starch, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Corn Starch Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Boil the milk with the sugar and chocolate until the chocolate is dissolved.

  2. Mix the corn starch as usual, then stir it into the milk mixture and immediately remove from heat.

  3. Beat in the butter, eggs, and vanilla extract.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until just set in the middle.

  2. Serve warm with butter sauce or golden sauce, or cold with sweetened 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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 into a smooth, sliceable custard as it gelatinizes with heat.
Eggs
Add structure and richness as their proteins set during baking.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens and the eggs set into custard.
Grated chocolate
Provides the main chocolate flavor and dark color of the pudding.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stir the corn starch into the milk and remove from heat immediately. Starch thickens fully once it gelatinizes near boiling; overcooking can break down thickening power and leave the pudding thin or grainy, while the eggs can curdle if heated too long.

“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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