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Chocolate Pudding

A chocolate custard baked with egg yolks and topped with a meringue-like white topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the chocolate custard

  1. Combine grated chocolate and milk in a saucepan.

  2. Boil thoroughly, then remove from heat.

  3. Stir in vanilla extract and let cool.

  4. Whisk in the egg yolks until well combined.

  5. Pour mixture into a buttered pudding dish.

Bake and brown

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until it sets like custard.

  2. Beat egg whites with powdered sugar until stiff peaks form.

  3. Spread egg white mixture over the top of the pudding.

  4. Return to the oven and brown quickly.

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

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

  4. Vanilla + sugartop 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).

Vanilla and sugar 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that sets when baked.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and help it set into a soft, sliceable texture.
Egg whites
Whipped into a stiff foam that forms a light, airy topping over the pudding.
Grated chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and color of the custard base.
Powdered sugar
Stabilizes the whipped egg whites and adds sweetness to the topping.

The step that matters

Whisk in the egg yolks after the mixture has cooled. Adding yolks to very hot liquid can scramble them, leaving lumps instead of a smooth custard. Cooling first lets the yolks thicken the base evenly when baked.

“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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