Name: Chocolate Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup bread crumbs; 1 square chocolate; ½ cup sugar; 1 egg; 2 cups scalded milk; a pinch of salt

Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. 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

Melt the chocolate in the scalded milk.
Stir in the bread crumbs and sugar.
Add the egg and a pinch of salt, mixing well.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.

Bake and serve

Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.
Serve warm with or without whipped cream.

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.

Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,404 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,128 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs: Soak up the hot milk and give the pudding body and a soft, spoonable structure.
Egg: Binds the mixture and sets during baking, giving the pudding its firm, custard-like texture.
Chocolate: Provides the main flavour and richness of the pudding.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.
Milk: Hydrates the bread crumbs and carries the chocolate, adding moisture and softness.

“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.