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Dessert

Chocolate Pudding

A custard-based chocolate pudding topped with chocolate meringue.

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

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk in a saucepan until it reaches a boiling point.

  2. In a small bowl, mix the corn starch with a little cold water to form a slurry.

  3. Stir the corn starch mixture into the boiling milk.

  4. Add the butter, egg yolks, and powdered sugar to the mixture, stirring well.

  5. Boil for 5 to 10 minutes, then pour into a baking dish.

Make the meringue and bake

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Gradually add 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar and 2-3 tablespoons of chocolate to the egg whites, folding gently.

  3. Spread the chocolate meringue over the custard in the baking dish.

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the top is slightly crusted.

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. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Milk + buttertop 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. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness as they set with the starch.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk into a smooth pudding as it boils.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks to form the light, airy chocolate meringue topping.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that the starch thickens.
Chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor to the pudding and to the meringue topping.

The step that matters

Boil the custard for 5 to 10 minutes. Starch only thickens fully when it boils, so the custard must be cooked long enough to lose its raw starch taste and set smoothly. Adding the egg yolks after boiling begins, and then boiling again, also helps the yolks thicken without scrambling.

“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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