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Dessert

Chocolate Pudding

A custard-like dessert made with milk, corn starch, chocolate, eggs, sugar, salt, 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

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.

Make the custard

  1. Mix the corn starch with ½ cup of the milk.

  2. Boil the remaining milk in a double boiler.

  3. Grate the chocolate.

  4. Add the corn starch mixture, salt, and chocolate to the boiling milk.

  5. Cook for 10 minutes.

  6. Beat the yolks of the eggs with 3 tablespoons of sugar.

  7. Pour the hot mixture onto the egg yolks and beat well.

Bake

  1. Transfer the mixture to a pudding dish that holds about 1 quart.

  2. Bake for 20 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

Top and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.

  2. Gradually add the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar and the vanilla to the whites.

  3. Spread the egg white mixture on the pudding.

  4. Return the pudding to the oven.

  5. Cook for an additional 15 minutes with the oven door open.

  6. Serve either cold or hot.

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 into a smooth, set custard as it cooks.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the starch and eggs thicken into a pudding.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and set the custard, while whites whip into a light topping.
Chocolate
Provides the main chocolate flavor and color of the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and stabilizes the whipped egg white topping.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot mixture onto the egg yolks. Adding the hot milk mixture too quickly can scramble the yolks. Pouring slowly while beating gradually warms the yolks so they thicken smoothly instead of curdling.

“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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