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Dessert

Chocolate and Cream Pudding

A milk-based pudding thickened with corn starch, sweetened with sugar, flavored with vanilla, and layered with coconut and chocolate.

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 and Cream Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Scald the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Dissolve the corn starch in a little cold milk.

  3. Add the dissolved mixture to the scalded milk.

  4. Stir in the sugar and beaten egg whites.

  5. Cook until thickened.

  6. Flavor with vanilla extract.

  7. Divide the mixture in half.

Layer and cool

  1. Add shredded coconut to one half and melted chocolate to the other.

  2. Pour the coconut mixture into a mold first.

  3. Add the chocolate mixture on top.

  4. Cool the pudding.

Serve

  1. 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. Corn + coconuttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together306 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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 thickens into a creamy, soft pudding.
Corn starch
Thickens the mixture as it heats, giving the pudding its body and set.
Egg whites
Add structure and body to the cooked pudding as they set with heat.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the chocolate flavor.
Shredded coconut
Adds texture and a toasty, sweet coconut flavor to one layer.
Chocolate
Provides rich chocolate flavor and dark color to the second layer.

The step that matters

Cook until thickened. Cornstarch only thickens fully once the mixture reaches a simmer, and stirring keeps it smooth and prevents scorching or lumps on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the coconut

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, corn, 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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