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Dessert

Chocolate Pudding

A chocolate pudding topped with a baked meringue layer.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 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.

Make the pudding

  1. Heat the milk in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix cornstarch, chocolate, sugar, egg yolks, salt, and vanilla.

  3. Gradually add the milk to the mixture, stirring constantly until thickened.

  4. Pour the pudding into a serving dish.

Top and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.

  2. Gradually add sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

  3. Spread the meringue over the pudding.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until the meringue is golden.

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. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that thickens into the pudding's creamy body.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk as it heats, giving the pudding its set texture.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help thicken the custard as they cook.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam to form the light, stable meringue topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and stabilizes the whipped egg white meringue.
Chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and color of the pudding.

The step that matters

Adding the milk to the yolk mixture. Pouring hot milk in gradually while stirring constantly keeps the egg yolks from scrambling and lets the cornstarch thicken the pudding smoothly.

“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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