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Dessert

Chocolate Pudding

A chocolate custard dessert made with chocolate, milk, flour, butter, eggs, and vanilla, steamed or baked.

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 chocolate milk base

  1. Break the chocolate into small pieces and put it with the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Simmer until dissolved, then cool.

Make the thick base

  1. In another saucepan, melt the butter.

  2. Stir in the flour and cook without browning.

  3. Add the milk to the flour mixture and stir until boiling.

  4. Stir in the cake crumbs and cook gently until thick and pulling away from the sides of the pan.

  5. Let it cool slightly.

Finish and cook

  1. Beat in the egg yolks and add the vanilla essence.

  2. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the mixture.

  3. Pour into a well-greased mold and cover with greased paper.

  4. Steam for about 1.5 hours or bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).

  5. Serve with custard, chocolate, or vanilla 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. 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Eggs
Egg whites whipped to stiff peaks lighten the pudding and give it a soft, airy texture.
Flour
Cooked with melted butter and milk, it thickens the base into a smooth, sturdy custard.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavour and, melted into the milk, colours the whole pudding.
Butter
Melted with the flour to form a roux, adding richness and helping the base thicken smoothly.
Cake crumbs
Stirred into the hot base, they add body and a tender, cakey texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites deflate if stirred hard or overmixed, losing the air that makes the pudding light. Fold gently with a spatula so the batter stays aerated while cooking.

“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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