Skip to main content
Dessert

Cocoa Pudding

A sweet, baked cocoa pudding made with bread crumbs, milk, eggs, butter, sugar, cocoa, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cocoa and vanilla work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 357 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Cocoa 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 custard base

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in the milk.

  2. Heat the mixture in a saucepan, stirring until it boils and thickens.

  3. Stir in the butter, sugar, and cocoa until well combined.

  4. Remove from heat and beat for two minutes.

Add the eggs and bake

  1. Whip in the beaten egg yolks, then fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  2. Pour into a buttered mold, set in a pan of hot water, and bake for 45 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

  3. Turn out and serve with powdered sugar.

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. Cocoa + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together357 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  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

Eggs
Yolks enrich and set the pudding, while whipped whites lighten its texture and help it rise.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and thicken the mixture, giving the pudding body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the crumbs soften in and the custard cooks from.
Butter
Adds fat for a richer mouthfeel and a smoother, more tender crumb.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the cocoa.
Grated cocoa
Provides the chocolate flavor and color of the pudding.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air only when whipped stiff, and deflating them by stirring rather than folding gently loses the lift that keeps the pudding light. Fold gently so the batter stays airy through baking.

Swap the cocoa

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

  1. Almondfits about as well
  2. Cocoathe original
  3. Pecansfits about as well
  4. Chestnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, egg, butter, sugar, 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.

You might also like

Bread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipesOrange Potato BreadOrange Potato Bread80 recipes