Name: Chocolate Pudding
Ingredients: 1 recipe corn starch pudding; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 2 tablespoons chocolate; milk as needed; whipped cream or custard for serving

Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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

1 recipe corn starch pudding
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons chocolate
milk as needed
whipped cream or custard for serving

Directions

Prepare corn starch pudding and flavor it with vanilla.
Remove one-third of the pudding and mix the rest with chocolate, softening with a little milk.
Pour half of the chocolate mixture into a mold dipped in cold water and smooth the top.
Add a layer of the vanilla pudding and smooth it out.
Top with the remaining chocolate mixture.
Serve with whipped cream or custard.

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.

Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,020 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,943 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,466 recipes

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