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 corn starch in a little water.
Add the dissolved mixture to the milk.
Beat the eggs.
Mix the beaten eggs into the milk mixture along with the sugar and salt.
Cook until thickened.
Serve
Serve with cream.
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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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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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).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk mixture as it heats, giving the pudding its body.
- Eggs
- Add richness and help set the pudding as it cooks.
- Chocolate
- Gives the pudding its chocolate flavor and color.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the starch and eggs thicken.
The step that matters
Cook until thickened. Cornstarch only thickens once the mixture reaches a boil and is stirred, so stopping too early leaves the pudding thin. Egg proteins can also scramble if the mixture overheats, so heat gently while stirring.
“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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