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Dessert

Chocolate Pudding

A sweet milk-based pudding thickened with chocolate and cornstarch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Chocolate and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,404 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Boil the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Add the grated chocolate, cornstarch, and sugar.

  3. Continue boiling until the mixture thickens.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into molds and let cool.

  2. Serve with sweetened and flavored 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. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
Provides the liquid base and creamy body of the pudding.
Grated chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and some richness to the pudding.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk into a smooth, set pudding as its starch swells when heated.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the chocolate flavor.

The step that matters

Boil until the mixture thickens. Cornstarch only thickens fully once the mixture reaches a boil, as its starch granules swell and gelatinize. Stopping early leaves a thin pudding. Keep it moving so it does not scorch on the bottom of the pan.

“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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