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Dessert

Chocolate Pudding

A steamed chocolate pudding made with breadcrumbs, butter, eggs, milk, and chocolate.

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

Prepare the chocolate and milk

  1. Break the chocolate into small pieces.

  2. Simmer the chocolate with the milk until dissolved.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Stir in the egg yolks.

  3. Stir in the breadcrumbs.

  4. Stir in the milk.

  5. Stir in the chocolate.

  6. Stir in the vanilla essence.

  7. Whisk the egg whites until stiff.

  8. Gently fold the stiff egg whites into the mixture.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered mold.

  2. Cover the mold with greased paper.

  3. Steam the mold for 1 to 1.5 hours.

  4. Alternatively, pour the mixture into six well-buttered dariole molds.

  5. Steam the molds for about 25 minutes.

  6. Serve with custard 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. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 whisked whites add lightness and rise.
Breadcrumbs
Provide the body of the pudding, soaking up liquid to give a soft, tender crumb.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender texture when creamed with the sugar.
Chocolate
Gives the pudding its flavour and colour, and its richness once melted into the milk.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps aerate the butter when creamed.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whisked whites trap air that gives lift. Stirring them in vigorously knocks that air out, so fold gently with a spatula to keep the pudding light.

“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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