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Dessert

Chocolate Pudding

A baked chocolate pudding with apple, bread crumbs, and eggs.

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 slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. Melt the chocolate in the milk using a double boiler.

  2. Pour the melted chocolate over the bread crumbs.

  3. Add the sugar, maple syrup, grated apple, and beaten egg yolks. Mix well.

Bake and serve

  1. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites and vanilla.

  2. Pour the mixture into a buttered pudding dish.

  3. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until set.

  4. Serve with whipped cream or your favorite 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. Apple + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,501 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (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 thicken the pudding and whites, folded in whipped, lighten its texture as it sets.
Bread crumbs
Stale crumbs soak up the chocolate milk and give the pudding its body.
Unsweetened chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and deep color of the pudding.
Milk
Carries the melted chocolate and adds moisture and richness to the custard.
Tart apple
Adds moisture and a tart brightness that balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and adds to its moisture and soft texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Whites hold air only while whipped; overmixing deflates them, so fold gently to keep the pudding light after baking.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, maple syrup, chocolate, bread, egg, 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.

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