Name: Chocolate Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pint rolled crackers; 4 tablespoons chocolate; 1 quart sweet milk; 1 cup sugar; butter the size of an egg; vanilla extract

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 pudding

Mix the rolled crackers, chocolate, and sweet milk in a bowl.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours.

Make the sauce and serve

For the sauce, beat the sugar and butter together until creamy.
Add vanilla extract to the butter and sugar mixture and mix well.
Serve the pudding warm with the sauce on top.

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).
Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,020 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,404 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, 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

Rolled crackers: Form the bulk of the pudding and soak up the milk to give it body.
Chocolate: Gives the pudding its chocolate flavor and color.
Sweet milk: Moistens the crackers and sets with the baking to form a soft custard-like texture.
Sugar: Sweetens the sauce and, creamed with butter, gives it a smooth texture.
Butter: Adds richness and, creamed with sugar, makes the sauce smooth and silky.

“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.