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Dessert

Chocolate Pudding

A milk-based pudding flavored with vanilla, coconut, and chocolate, served with boiled custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Coconut and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,294 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding base

  1. In a cup, dissolve cornstarch in a little milk.

  2. Stir the cornstarch mixture into the remaining boiling milk.

  3. Add the beaten egg whites and cook until thickened.

  4. Flavor with vanilla extract.

Divide and layer

  1. For one half of the pudding, mix in the shredded coconut.

  2. For the other half, mix in the melted chocolate.

  3. Pour the coconut mixture into a mold first, then add the chocolate mixture on top.

Cool and serve

  1. Cool and serve with boiled custard made from the egg yolks.

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. Coconut + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,294 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  5. Coconut + chocolatetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, 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

Cornstarch
Thickens the milk into a smooth, sliceable pudding as it cooks.
Beaten egg whites
Add structure and body to the pudding as they set with heat.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the cornstarch thickens into pudding.
Melted chocolate
Adds rich flavor and color to one half of the pudding.
Shredded coconut
Adds flavor and chewy texture to the other half of the pudding.

The step that matters

Add the cornstarch mixture to the boiling milk. Cornstarch must be fully dissolved in cold liquid before it goes into hot milk, otherwise it clumps. Once in the boiling milk it must be cooked long enough for the starch granules to swell and thicken the pudding fully.

Swap the coconut

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

  1. Coconutthe original
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Cherryfits about as well
  4. Raspberryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, egg, chocolate, 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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