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Dessert

Chocolate Pudding

A chocolate pudding made with bread crumbs, milk, chocolate, sugar, eggs, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Chocolate Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in 2 cups of milk.

  2. Melt the chocolate and mix in 3 tablespoons of sugar and ½ cup of milk. Cook over steam for 2 minutes.

Bake

  1. Add the soaked bread and milk, 2 eggs, ¼ cup sugar, and ½ teaspoon salt.

  2. Bake for 1 hour in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

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. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Form the body of the pudding and absorb the milk to create a soft, custard-like texture.
Eggs
Set during baking to bind the pudding and give it a firm yet tender structure.
Chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and richness throughout the pudding.
Milk
Hydrates the bread and forms the custard base, adding moisture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Cook over steam after melting the chocolate. Chocolate can seize or scorch if overheated. Gentle steam heat melts it smoothly into the milk and sugar, keeping the mixture even before it joins the eggs and bread.

“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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