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Dessert

Chocolate Pudding

A steamed or baked chocolate pudding made with chocolate, cake crumbs, flour, butter, sugar, eggs, milk, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 chocolate base

  1. Break chocolate into small pieces.

  2. Combine chocolate with milk in a saucepan and simmer until dissolved.

  3. Cool.

Make the flour thickener

  1. Melt butter in another saucepan.

  2. Stir in flour and cook briefly without browning.

  3. Add milk to flour mixture and stir until boiling.

  4. Stir in cake crumbs.

  5. Cook gently until mixture thickens and pulls away from sides.

  6. Let mixture cool slightly.

Combine and cook

  1. Beat in egg yolks.

  2. Add vanilla essence.

  3. Whisk egg whites until stiff.

  4. Gently fold egg whites into mixture.

  5. Pour mixture into a well-buttered mold.

  6. Cover with buttered paper.

  7. Steam for 1.5 hours or bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).

  8. Serve with custard, chocolate, or vanilla sauce.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Egg yolks enrich and set the pudding, while whipped whites add lightness and airy texture.
Flour
Flour, cooked in butter, thickens the mixture to give the pudding body.
Butter
Butter adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and softening the crumb texture.
Chocolate
Chocolate provides the main flavour and, melted into milk, colours and enriches the pudding.
Cake crumbs
Cake crumbs absorb liquid and add bulk and a soft, tender texture.

The step that matters

Fold the egg whites gently. Whipped egg whites trap air that gives the pudding its lightness. Stirring them in vigorously knocks that air out, leaving a dense result.

“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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