Why it works: Milk and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,128 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓
Chocolate Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the chocolate base
Dissolve the grated chocolate in a small amount of water.
Add the yolks of the eggs to the dissolved chocolate.
Bring the milk to a boil and then add the dissolved gelatine.
Set and finish
Let the mixture cool until it thickens.
Fold in the beaten egg whites.
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.
-
Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,128 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Chocolate + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,448 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sweet chocolate
- Gives the pudding its chocolate flavour and a rich, dense body.
- Milk
- Forms the creamy liquid base that the other ingredients are combined into.
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich and thicken the custard, while whites add air and lightness when folded in.
- Gelatine
- Sets the liquid mixture so it firms up as it cools.
The step that matters
Fold in the beaten egg whites. Beaten whites hold air that gives the pudding its lightness. Stirring or mixing vigorously knocks that air out, so fold gently and only until just combined.
“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.
More chocolate pudding recipes
You might also like
Chocolate Cream171 recipes
Chocolate Cookies76 recipes
Chocolate Fudge55 recipes
Chocolate Drop Cookies50 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.