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Dessert

Chocolate Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate base

  1. Boil the milk with the cocoa.

  2. Add the sugar and butter.

  3. Pour the mixture over the breadcrumbs.

  4. Add the almonds and vanilla.

  5. Let it stand for 1 hour.

  6. Add the beaten eggs.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour into a well-buttered basin or mold.

  2. Cover with buttered paper.

  3. Steam for 1 hour.

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. Almond + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cocoa + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together357 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Provide the bulk and body that the pudding sets around.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set it into a firm, sliceable pudding when steamed.
Cocoa
Gives the pudding its chocolate flavour and colour.
Milk
Moistens the breadcrumbs and softens them into the base.
Butter
Adds richness and a softer, smoother texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and balances the bitterness of the cocoa.

The step that matters

Add the beaten eggs. Eggs set when heated, so the mixture must be evenly combined before steaming. Lumps of egg or uneven mixing can leave the pudding with pockets of set egg and uneven texture.

Swap the cocoa

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, almond, sugar, butter, egg, milk, vanilla):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Pecansfits better
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Cocoathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, almond, sugar, butter, egg, milk, 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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