Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Chocolate Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard base
Combine grated chocolate and cinnamon with boiling water in a bowl.
Let it sit by the fire until dissolved.
Mix in boiling milk and add sugar.
Allow the mixture to cool.
Stir in the beaten eggs.
Bake or steam and serve
Pour the mixture into a buttered pie dish.
Steam or bake for 30 minutes.
Serve hot when steamed and cold when baked.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Chocolate + cinnamontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,808 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Set the pudding into a soft custard as they cook, giving it structure.
- Chocolate
- Provides the main flavour and richness of the pudding.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the eggs set in, adding softness and creaminess.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the bitterness of the chocolate.
The step that matters
Stir in the beaten eggs. Eggs thicken when heated but can scramble if the mixture is too hot. Letting the mixture cool first keeps the eggs smooth and lets them set into a custard.
“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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