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Dessert

Chocolate Pudding

A chocolate pudding topped with meringue, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

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. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler.

  2. Mix cornstarch and sugar in a bowl.

  3. Stir in hot milk gradually, mixing until smooth.

  4. Cook for 25 minutes in the double boiler, stirring constantly.

  5. Add the beaten egg yolk and vanilla, mixing well.

Top and bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a baking dish.

  2. Beat the egg white until stiff, then add sugar to make meringue.

  3. Spread the meringue over the pudding.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

  5. Serve from the baking dish.

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. Chocolate + milktop 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

Chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and dark colour of the pudding.
Cornstarch
Thickens the hot milk as it cooks, giving the pudding its body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and adds richness.
Egg yolk
Enriches the custard and helps thicken it as it heats.
Egg white
Whipped into meringue, it forms the light topping that browns in the oven.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps stabilise the whipped egg white.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard in the double boiler. Cornstarch and egg yolk only thicken once the mixture reaches a high enough temperature, and constant stirring spreads heat evenly and prevents lumps and scorching on the base of the pan. Stopping early leaves the pudding thin.

“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.

More chocolate pudding recipes

Steamed 30with Meringue 6Hot 6Baked 3Sauce 3Cold 3 See all 329 →

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