Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Chocolate Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Mix the chocolate, flour, sugar, and butter together.
Boil the milk and stir over the heat until it pulls away from the sides of the pan, then let it cool.
Add the eggs
Break the eggs and whisk the whites and yolks separately.
Add the yolks to the pudding mixture, then fold in the whipped whites.
Steam and serve
Pour into a buttered basin and steam for 1 hour.
Turn out and serve hot.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,128 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Chocolate
- Provides the main chocolate flavour and richness of the pudding.
- Flour
- Thickens the mixture and gives the pudding its body as it cooks.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a moist, rich texture.
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich and help set the pudding; whipped whites lighten its texture.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and helps make the mixture soft and smooth.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and softens its flavour.
The step that matters
Fold in the whipped whites. Fold gently rather than stirring, so the air trapped in the whites stays in the mixture. That trapped air is what lightens the pudding as it steams.
“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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