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Chocolate Pudding. No. 2

A chocolate pudding topped with browned meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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. No. 2

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Scald the milk and grated chocolate together.

  2. When cool, add the egg yolks and sugar, then flavor with vanilla.

Bake

  1. Bake for about 25 minutes.

Top and brown

  1. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, adding the fine sugar.

  2. Spread the meringue evenly over the top and brown slightly in the oven.

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

Egg yolks
Enriches the custard and helps it set into a smooth, tender texture.
Egg whites
Whipped into a meringue that gives a light, airy topping.
Grated chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and color of the pudding.
Sweet milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs thicken as it bakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps stabilize the whipped egg white meringue.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Whites must be whipped until they hold firm peaks to form a stable meringue. Underbeaten whites will weep and slump, while overbeaten whites turn dry and grainy. Adding sugar gradually helps keep the foam stable.

“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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