Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Chocolate Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Boil the milk in a saucepan.
Stir in the chocolate until melted.
Dissolve the cornstarch in a little water and add it to the milk mixture.
Beat the eggs and mix them with the sugar and salt, then add to the saucepan.
Cook until thickened, stirring constantly.
Serve
Serve with cream as a sauce.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,787 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,466 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,128 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the milk mixture as it cooks, giving the pudding its body.
- Eggs
- Add richness and help set the custard as they cook.
- Chocolate
- Gives the pudding its chocolate flavor and color.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the pudding thickens in.
The step that matters
Cook until thickened, stirring constantly. Cornstarch needs to reach a boil to thicken fully, and constant stirring prevents lumps and keeps the eggs from scrambling on the bottom of the pan.
“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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