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Dessert

Rachel Cornstarch Pudding

A chocolate pudding thickened with corn starch, finished with almonds and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Rachel Cornstarch Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding base

  1. Mix sugar, corn starch, and salt.

  2. Dilute with cold milk.

  3. Add to scalded milk slowly while stirring constantly.

  4. Cook for 15 minutes or until thickened.

  5. Melt chocolate.

  6. Add hot water. Stir to a smooth paste.

  7. Add to the cooked mixture along with shredded almonds.

  8. Fold in beaten egg whites and vanilla extract.

Mould and serve

  1. Turn into a fancy ring mold that has been wet with cold water.

  2. Chill.

  3. Unmold.

  4. Fill the center with whipped 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. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Corn + almondtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together485 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  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

Corn starch
Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, sliceable pudding as it cooks.
Egg whites
Beaten and folded in to add lightness and airy texture to the pudding.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens into the pudding.
Chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and colour of the pudding.
Shredded almonds
Add crunch and nutty flavour to the set pudding.

The step that matters

Add the cornstarch mixture to the scalded milk slowly while stirring constantly. Cornstarch clumps if it meets hot liquid all at once. Slow addition with constant stirring disperses the starch granules evenly, so the pudding cooks smooth rather than lumpy.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, chocolate, corn, sugar, egg, vanilla):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Peanutfits about as well
  3. Hazelnutfits about as well
  4. Chestnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, chocolate, corn, sugar, egg, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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