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Dessert

Chestnut Pudding

A baked or steamed dessert made with chestnuts, chocolate, cake crumbs, flour, butter, sugar, eggs, milk, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Chestnut and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 244 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chestnut Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the chestnuts

  1. Bake or roast the chestnuts.

  2. Remove the skins from the chestnuts.

  3. Cook the chestnuts in a small amount of water until tender.

  4. Rub the chestnut mixture through a fine sieve.

Make the base

  1. Break the chocolate into small pieces.

  2. Combine the chocolate with the milk in a saucepan.

  3. Simmer the chocolate and milk mixture until dissolved.

  4. Melt the butter in another saucepan.

  5. Stir in the flour.

  6. Cook the butter and flour mixture for a few minutes.

  7. Add the milk to the mixture.

  8. Stir until the mixture boils.

  9. Add the cake crumbs to the mixture.

  10. Cook until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan.

  11. Allow the mixture to cool slightly.

Finish the mixture

  1. Beat in the egg yolk.

  2. Beat in the chestnut purée.

  3. Beat in the vanilla essence.

  4. Whisk the egg white to stiff peaks.

  5. Fold the whisked egg white into the mixture.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a well-greased mold.

  2. Cover the mold with greased paper.

  3. Steam the pudding for about 1½ hours or bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 1 hour.

  4. Serve the pudding with vanilla or custard sauce.

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. Chestnut + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together244 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Chestnut + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together517 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chestnuts
Provide the main body and sweet, nutty flavour of the pudding.
Chocolate
Adds rich flavour and colour to the milk base.
Flour
Thickens the melted butter and milk into a smooth base.
Eggs
Set the pudding and, when whisked, add lightness.
Milk
Supplies moisture and dissolves the chocolate into the base.
Cake crumbs
Add body and soak up liquid to give a softer texture.

The step that matters

Fold the whisked egg white into the mixture. Whisked whites trap air that gives the pudding its lift. Stirring or beating them in vigorously knocks that air out, leaving a dense result, so fold gently with a large spatula.

Swap the chestnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chocolate, flour, butter, sugar, egg, milk, vanilla):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Hazelnutfits about as well
  3. Chestnutthe original
  4. Macadamia nutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chocolate, flour, butter, sugar, egg, milk, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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