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Dessert

Chocolate Cream Pudding

A chilled chocolate pudding made with gelatin, cream, chocolate, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Chocolate Cream Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatin in cold water for 1 hour, just enough to cover it.

  2. Combine the rich cream in a basin.

  3. Bring the cream to a boil.

  4. Scrape the chocolate.

  5. Mix the chocolate with the sugar, then wet the mixture with the boiling cream to form a smooth paste.

Make the custard

  1. Stir the chocolate mixture into the boiling cream.

  2. Add the soaked gelatin.

  3. Beat the egg yolks well, then stir them in.

  4. Cook for 3 minutes.

  5. Remove from heat.

  6. Strain the mixture.

  7. Place the basin in a pan of ice water and stir for 10 minutes.

  8. Add the vanilla.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into moulds.

  2. Refrigerate until set.

  3. Serve with sweetened whipped cream.

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, 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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid cream into a firm, sliceable pudding when chilled.
Rich cream
Provides fat and richness, giving the pudding a smooth, creamy texture.
French chocolate
Supplies the chocolate flavour and adds body to the set pudding.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard through gentle heat and add richness and colour.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks scramble if they meet very hot liquid directly. Stirring them into the hot cream while beating well, then cooking gently, lets the proteins thicken the custard smoothly instead of curdling.

“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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