Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Pudding

A baked chocolate pudding made with breadcrumbs, milk, butter, eggs, and chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 ↓

Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the custard base

  1. Boil the milk and butter together.

  2. In a bowl, combine breadcrumbs, brown sugar, and grated chocolate.

  3. Pour the hot milk over the mixture and let it soak for a few minutes.

  4. Beat the eggs well, reserving one egg white.

  5. Add the eggs and cream to the soaked mixture, then stir in the vanilla.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered pie dish.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until set, about 30 minutes.

  3. Beat the reserved egg white until stiff and pile it on top of the pudding.

  4. Sprinkle with sugar and return to the oven until lightly browned.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  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
Bind the pudding and set it into a soft, custard-like texture when baked.
Breadcrumbs
Soak up the hot milk to form the body of the pudding.
Milk
Hydrates the breadcrumbs and forms the liquid base of the custard.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavour and colour of the pudding.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the top brown.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a softer, more tender crumb.

The step that matters

Baking until set. Egg proteins coagulate as they heat, so the pudding sets into a custard. Overbaking pushes the eggs too far, making the texture firm, dry and grainy.

“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.

More chocolate pudding recipes

Steamed 30with Meringue 6Hot 6Baked 3Sauce 3Cold 3 See all 329 →

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesChocolate FudgeChocolate Fudge55 recipes