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Dessert

Chocolate Pudding

A steamed chocolate pudding made with cocoa, bread crumbs, sugar, butter, milk, eggs, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cocoa and vanilla work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 357 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Melt the cocoa in the milk over low heat.

  2. Melt the butter and add the sugar.

  3. Pour the butter and sugar mixture over the bread crumbs.

  4. Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing well.

  5. Stir in the melted cocoa and milk mixture.

Finish and steam

  1. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the mixture.

  2. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered mold and steam for one 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. Cocoa + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together357 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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
Yolks enrich and bind the custard, while whipped whites lighten and give the pudding its rise.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the butter, sugar and liquid to form the body and soft texture of the pudding.
Cocoa
Supplies the chocolate flavor and deep color of the pudding.
Milk or cream
Provides moisture and softens the crumbs so the mixture can set when steamed.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing to a tender crumb and smooth mouthfeel.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and adds moisture-holding character to the batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Whites beaten to stiff peaks trap air that lightens the pudding. Stirring them in vigorously knocks that air out, so fold gently to keep the pudding light.

Swap the cocoa

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

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

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