Skip to main content
Dessert

Steam Chocolate Pudding

A steamed chocolate pudding made with sugar, egg, butter, milk, flour, baking powder, vanilla, and grated chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Steam Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the sugar, egg, melted butter, and salt until well combined.

  2. Add the milk, flour, baking powder, vanilla extract, and grated chocolate.

  3. Stir until smooth.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for 1 hour.

  3. Serve with 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.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Vanilla + chocolatetop 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

Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets during steaming.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the pudding as the starch sets.
Baking powder
Releases gas that helps the pudding rise and turn light.
Melted butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and richer flavor.
Grated chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and some richness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Steam for 1 hour. Steam must stay steadily gentle and the mold must be sealed so water does not enter. Gentle, moist heat sets the batter evenly without drying or cracking it.

“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.

You might also like