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Dessert

Chocolate Pudding

A steamed chocolate pudding made with breadcrumbs, chocolate, sugar, butter, eggs, milk, and vanilla essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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

Prepare the chocolate

  1. Break chocolate into small pieces and simmer with milk until dissolved.

Make the batter

  1. Cream butter and sugar together, then stir in egg yolks, breadcrumbs, dissolved chocolate, and vanilla essence.

  2. Whisk egg whites until stiff, then gently fold into mixture.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour mixture into well-buttered mold, cover with greased paper, and steam for 1 to 1.5 hours.

  2. Alternatively, pour into six well-buttered dariole molds and steam for about 25 minutes.

  3. Serve with custard or vanilla sauce.

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. 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

Eggs
Egg whites whisked to stiff peaks lighten the pudding and help it set as it steams.
Breadcrumbs
Provide the bulk of the body, soaking up the milk and chocolate to form a soft, tender crumb.
Chocolate
Supplies the main flavour and richness, melted into the milk before mixing.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender texture when creamed with the sugar.
Milk
Moistens the breadcrumbs and melts the chocolate, giving the batter its fluid base.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites whisked to stiff peaks trap air that gives lift. Folding gently keeps that air in; vigorous stirring deflates the mixture and leaves a denser pudding.

“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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