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Dessert

Chocolate Pudding

Chocolate pudding made with butter, sugar, milk, flour, baking powder, eggs, melted chocolate, salt, and vanilla, baked and topped with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.

  3. Add the milk, flour, baking powder, beaten eggs, melted chocolate, salt, and vanilla, then mix well.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter into an angel-cake pan.

  2. Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

  3. Remove from the pan and fill the cavity with whipped cream, sweetened and flavored to taste.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Eggs
Set with heat to bind the batter and add structure and richness.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, making the batter rise and turn light.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps keep the crumb tender and moist.
Chocolate
Supplies the main chocolate flavor and darkens the batter's color.

The step that matters

Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. Egg proteins and flour starch must fully set in the centre. Removing the cake early leaves a wet, underbaked middle that can sink or collapse as it cools.

“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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