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Dessert

Chocolate Pudding

A sweet custard made with milk, eggs, sugar, cornstarch, chocolate, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk in a saucepan until it is heated (not boiling).

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs well and gradually add the sugar.

  3. Mix the cornstarch with the egg and sugar mixture.

  4. Dissolve the grated chocolate in a bowl over hot water, then stir it into the milk.

  5. Combine the milk mixture with the egg mixture and stir until it thickens into a soft custard.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the vanilla and serve with whipped cream.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

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

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the pudding that thickens into custard.
Eggs
Add richness and help set the custard as they thicken with heat.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps soften the eggs when beaten in.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, soft custard as it heats.
Grated chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and adds body to the pudding.

The step that matters

Stirring the custard as it thickens. Cornstarch thickens when heated, and the egg mixture can curdle or turn lumpy if it gets too hot too fast or is not stirred constantly. Keep the heat moderate and stir steadily until the custard is smooth and thick.

“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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