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Dessert

Chocolate Pudding

A chilled chocolate pudding made with milk, eggs, corn starch, sugar, chocolate, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

Prepare

  1. Heat 1 pint of milk in a double boiler.

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Moisten 4 tablespoons of corn starch with cold milk.

Make the pudding

  1. Stir the corn starch mixture into the hot milk.

  2. Cook the mixture until thick and smooth.

  3. Add ½ cup sugar and 4 ounces of grated chocolate.

  4. Remove the mixture from heat.

  5. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

  6. Pour the mixture into a mold and refrigerate until set.

Make the sauce

  1. Beat the egg yolks with 4 tablespoons of sugar in a separate bowl.

  2. Add 1 pint of scalding milk to the yolk mixture and cook for a few moments.

  3. Stir in 1 teaspoon of vanilla and let cool.

  4. Serve the sauce with the pudding.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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
Whites whipped to peaks give the pudding a light, airy structure; yolks enrich the sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the cornstarch thickens and the chocolate flavors.
Corn starch
Swells in hot liquid to thicken the pudding and help it set.
Grated chocolate
Provides the main chocolate flavor and richness to the pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air from whipping. Stirring or mixing hard after folding them in deflates the foam, which makes the pudding dense instead of light.

“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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