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Dessert

Chestnut Pudding

A steamed or baked pudding made with chestnut puree, chocolate, cake crumbs, flour, butter, sugar, eggs, milk, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Chestnut and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 244 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chestnut Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the chestnuts

  1. Bake or roast the chestnuts.

  2. Remove both skins.

  3. Place them in a saucepan with a small amount of water.

  4. Cook until tender.

  5. Rub through a fine sieve.

Make the custard base

  1. Break the chocolate into small pieces.

  2. Add it to the milk in a saucepan.

  3. Simmer until dissolved.

  4. Melt the butter.

  5. Stir in the flour.

  6. Cook for 2-3 minutes.

  7. Add the milk.

  8. Stir until it boils.

  9. Add the cake crumbs to the mixture and stir.

  10. Cook until it leaves the sides of the saucepan clear.

  11. Allow to cool slightly.

Bake and serve

  1. Beat in the egg yolks, chestnut puree, and vanilla essence.

  2. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  3. Gently fold them into the mixture.

  4. Pour into a well-buttered mold.

  5. Cover with buttered paper.

  6. Steam for 1½ hours.

  7. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F/175°C) for 1 hour.

  8. Serve with vanilla or custard sauce.

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. Chestnut + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together244 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  3. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Chestnut + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together517 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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

Eggs
Yolks enrich and set the pudding, while whipped whites lighten its texture.
Chestnuts
Puréed chestnuts give the pudding its body, moisture and sweet, nutty flavour.
Flour
Cooked with butter, it thickens the milk and gives the base structure.
Cake crumbs
They soak up the liquid and help hold the pudding together.
Chocolate
Melted into the milk, it adds deep flavour and a darker colour.
Milk
It forms the liquid base that thickens into a custard with the flour and eggs.

The step that matters

Gently fold the whisked egg whites into the mixture. Whisked whites trap air that helps the pudding rise and feel light. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, leaving a dense result.

Swap the chestnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Hazelnutfits about as well
  3. Chestnutthe original
  4. Macadamia nutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chocolate, flour, butter, sugar, 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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