Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Meringue Pudding

A chocolate custard topped with meringue, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and vanilla 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 Meringue Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard

  1. Mix the corn starch with ½ cup of the milk.

  2. Boil the remaining milk in a double boiler.

  3. Scrape the chocolate.

  4. Add the corn starch mixture, salt, and chocolate to the boiling milk.

  5. Cook for 10 minutes.

  6. Beat the egg yolks with 3 tablespoons of sugar.

  7. Pour the hot mixture over the egg yolks.

  8. Beat the mixture well.

Bake and top

  1. Transfer the mixture to a pudding dish that holds about 1 quart.

  2. Bake for 20 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

  3. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, gradually adding the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar and vanilla.

  4. Spread the meringue over the pudding.

  5. Return the dish to the oven.

  6. Cook for an additional 15 minutes with the oven door open.

  7. Serve either cold or hot.

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

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

  4. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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 thicken the custard and whites whip into the meringue topping.
Corn starch
Gelatinizes in the hot milk, thickening the pudding to a smooth, set texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, providing moisture and body.
Chocolate
Supplies the chocolate flavor and richness to the custard.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the custard and stabilizes the whipped egg whites in the meringue.

The step that matters

Pour the hot mixture over the egg yolks. Adding hot liquid to yolks too quickly can scramble them. Pouring slowly while beating gently warms the yolks so the custard thickens smoothly without lumps.

“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.

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesCorn CakeCorn Cake90 recipesCorn Starch CakeCorn Starch Cake89 recipes