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Dessert

Chocolate Cream Pudding

A chilled dessert made with milk, chocolate, cornstarch, egg whites, sugar, 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 Cream Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the base

  1. Melt the chocolate in a saucepan over steam from a kettle.

  2. Bring the milk to a boil.

  3. Mix the cornstarch with a little cold milk, then stir it into the boiling milk.

  4. Stir constantly over moderate heat for 5 minutes.

Add the egg whites

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Add the granulated sugar to the milk, then gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.

  4. Take out one-third of the mixture and stir in the powdered sugar and melted chocolate.

Mould and set

  1. Pour half of the white mixture into a mold, then add all of the chocolate mixture, and top with the remaining white mixture.

  2. Let it stand until it stiffens.

  3. Serve cold with soft custard sauce or 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. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, 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

Cornstarch
Thickens the milk as it heats, giving the pudding its body.
Egg whites
Whipped to foam, they give the pudding a light, airy structure.
Unsweetened chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and colour.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness to the pudding base.

The step that matters

Stir constantly while the cornstarch cooks. Starch granules can clump and scorch on the bottom of the pan if left unstirred. Constant stirring keeps heat even so the mixture thickens smoothly.

“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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