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Dessert

Chocolate Pudding

A baked chocolate pudding topped with a browned meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pudding

  1. Soak the cracker crumbs in water for a few minutes, then squeeze them out thoroughly.

  2. Dissolve the chocolate in a little of the milk.

  3. Add the remaining ingredients to the chocolate mixture.

  4. Pour the mixture into a buttered dish and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15 to 20 minutes.

Make the meringue and finish

  1. Beat the egg whites to a foam.

  2. Add the powdered sugar and beat until stiff and glossy.

  3. Spread the meringue over the pudding.

  4. Place it in a very hot oven for about 2 minutes, just long enough to brown the meringue slightly.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

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

  4. Butter + chocolatetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,543 recipes

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set with heat, giving the pudding body and richness.
Egg whites
Whip into a foam that gives the meringue lift and a stable, airy structure.
Chocolate
Supplies the main flavor and, melted into the milk, colors and sweetens the pudding.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that sets into the pudding with the eggs.
Powdered cracker
Adds bulk and body to the pudding once soaked and squeezed dry.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves into the whipped whites to sweeten and stabilize the meringue.

The step that matters

Beating the meringue to stiff, glossy peaks. Egg whites hold air only when fully whipped and free of grease or yolk. Underbeaten whites weep and collapse, while the sugar added during beating 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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