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Dessert

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

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

  1. Boil the milk with the sugar and grated chocolate, stirring frequently until the chocolate is fully dissolved.

  2. Mix the corn starch with a little cold milk, then stir it into the boiling mixture and remove from heat immediately.

  3. Beat in the butter, eggs, and vanilla extract until well combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 20 minutes or until set in the middle.

  2. Serve warm, with 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 mixture into a smooth, sliceable custard as it heats and sets.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the pudding set firm when baked.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens and the eggs enrich.
Grated chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and dark colour throughout the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and softens the flavour of the chocolate.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Remove from heat immediately after adding the corn starch. Cornstarch thickens as it reaches a boil, and continued heating can break down its thickening power and leave the pudding thin or grainy. Stirring the starch into a little cold milk first keeps it from clumping.

“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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