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Dessert

Chocolate Pudding

A baked chocolate pudding made with bread crumbs, milk, sugar, eggs, 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

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.

Prepare the pudding

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine the grated bread crumbs, milk, sugar, egg yolks, grated chocolate, and vanilla. Mix well and pour into a baking dish.

  3. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until set.

Add the meringue and serve

  1. Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then spread over the pudding to create a meringue.

  2. Brown the meringue in the oven before serving.

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. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, 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

Bread crumbs
Provide the body that thickens the pudding as it soaks up the milk.
Egg yolks
Set the custard during baking, giving it a rich, tender structure.
Egg whites
Whipped into stiff peaks to form a light meringue that browns on top.
Milk
Supplies the liquid that softens the crumbs and forms the custard base.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the meringue brown in the oven.
Grated chocolate
Gives the pudding its chocolate flavor and deep color.

The step that matters

Whipping the egg whites to stiff peaks. Egg whites must be whipped until they hold stiff peaks so the meringue stays airy and does not weep or collapse. Any trace of fat or yolk in the bowl can stop them from whipping properly.

“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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