Name: Chocolate Pudding. No. 1
Ingredients: 1 quart sweet milk; 3 tablespoons cornstarch; 3 tablespoons sugar; 1 egg; 4 tablespoons grated vanilla chocolate; whipped cream or boiled custard for serving

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. No. 1

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

Combine milk, cornstarch, and sugar in a saucepan and cook until thickened.
Remove half of the mixture and flavor it to taste.
Add the beaten egg and dissolved chocolate to the remaining mixture.

Mold and serve

Pour the mixtures into a mold alternately, dark and light.
Serve with whipped cream or boiled 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.

Milk + vanillatop 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).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

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

Milk: Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens and the egg enriches.
Cornstarch: Thickens the milk as its starch swells and gelatinizes when heated.
Egg: Adds richness and helps the pudding set once it is heated.
Grated vanilla chocolate: Gives the dark layer its chocolate flavor and color.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the chocolate flavor.

The step that matters

Cooking the milk, cornstarch, and sugar until thickened. Cornstarch only thickens fully when the mixture is heated enough for its starch granules to swell and gelatinize. Stopping early leaves a thin pudding that will not set firmly in the mold.

“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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Chocolate Pudding. No. 1