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Dessert

Cornstarch, Chocolate

A chocolate pudding thickened with cornstarch, sweetened with sugar, and flavored with 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 ↓

Cornstarch, Chocolate

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Melt the chocolate and set aside.

Make the pudding

  1. In a farina boiler, combine the milk, sugar, cornstarch, and salt.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the melted chocolate and vanilla.

Serve

  1. Pour the mixture into cups, filling each half full.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

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

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

Cornstarch
Thickens the milk as it heats, giving the pudding its set body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the cornstarch thickens into pudding.
Chocolate
Supplies the chocolate flavor and some richness to the pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the chocolate's bitterness.
Eggs
Listed in the ingredients but not used in any step, so no role is stated.

The step that matters

Stirring while the pudding cooks. Cornstarch can clump and scorch on the bottom of the pan if not stirred constantly. Constant stirring keeps heat even so the starch swells smoothly and thickens evenly.

“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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