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Dessert

Chocolate Pudding

A steamed chocolate pudding made with bread crumbs, chocolate, milk, eggs, and a powdered sugar butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. In a bowl, combine the dried bread crumbs, melted chocolate, milk, sugar, and beaten eggs.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  3. Steam for 45 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, cream together the powdered sugar and butter.

  2. Add ½ cup milk and stir in a double boiler until it boils.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

Eggs
Bind the mixture and set into a firm, sliceable pudding when steamed.
Dried bread crumbs
Provide bulk and body, soaking up the liquid to give the pudding structure.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the sauce.
Baker's chocolate
Supplies the chocolate flavor and deep color of the pudding.

The step that matters

Stir the sauce over a double boiler until it boils. Gentle indirect heat keeps the milk and sugar from scorching or curdling, giving a smooth sauce. Once it reaches a boil, removing it from heat before adding vanilla preserves the vanilla's aroma, which heat would drive off.

“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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