Rich, flavorful, and decadent, there’s nothing in life quite as good as chocolate pudding. While puddings of every type have a long and decadent history, it’s chocolate that’s the modern favorite.
Its creamy texture is without a doubt one of the most amazing things about it, but there’s a secret in the pudding not everyone knows.
Worry not though, we’ll be letting you in on it when we talk about the history of puddings and, of course, National Chocolate Pudding Day.
National Chocolate Pudding Day Timeline
Alfred Bird Invents Egg-Free Custard Powder
British chemist Alfred Bird creates Bird’s Custard Powder in Birmingham, using starch instead of eggs and paving the way for convenient, eggless custard-style desserts that later include chocolate versions.
Rise of Creamy, Starch-Thickened Puddings
In Britain and North America, sweet milk puddings shift from egg-thickened custards and steamed “puddings” to softer, cornstarch- or flour-thickened desserts, laying the groundwork for modern chocolate pudding.
Early Printed Recipe for Chocolate Pudding
One of the earliest known English-language recipes titled “chocolate pudding” appears in the 18th century, describing a rich, cooked mixture closer to a baked or boiled pudding than today’s creamy American version.
First Boxed Chocolate Pudding Mix Sold in U.S.
The My‑T‑Fine brand begins selling what is described as the first boxed pudding mix, a chocolate flavor, helping transform chocolate pudding into an easy, standardized home dessert.
Cook-and-Serve and Instant Puddings Spread
Major U.S. brands such as Jell‑O expand from gelatin desserts into cook-and-serve and instant pudding mixes, using modified starches so chocolate pudding can be made quickly with milk at home.
Chocolate Pudding Becomes Everyday Comfort Food
By the late 1900s, ready-to-eat cups, boxed mixes, and home recipes make chocolate pudding a standard American comfort dessert, served in school lunches, hospital trays, and family kitchens alike.
Health-Conscious and Vegan Chocolate Puddings Emerge
Building on the classic dessert, cooks and manufacturers develop chocolate puddings based on alternative milks, tofu, avocado, and reduced sugar, reflecting contemporary interest in vegan and lighter treats.
How to Celebrate National Chocolate Pudding Day
Well to start off with get yourself a great big bowl of delicious chocolate pudding and go to town. If you’re feeling particularly adventurous you can even try making your own, which opens up a broad range of possibilities.
A milk chocolate may be a classic type of pudding, but you can also mix it up with a dark chocolate, a white chocolate, even a mint chocolate!
Then you can top it with a swirl of caramel or even sprinkle it with rainbow sprinkles. National Chocolate Pudding Day celebrates this amazing treat and offers you the opportunity to eat your fill, top it with whipped cream!
History of National Chocolate Pudding Day
The history of puddings starts far back in the 17th century, when the first recipes for puddings appears. Back then puddings were made much different than the (classically thought of) pudding is today, and to make it clear we’re talking about dessert puddings not savory puddings, which are another topic entirely.
Common ingredients were butter and flour, suet, cereals, and other ingredients which when they came together served to create more of a cake like result than the puddings we think of today. It’s also worth mentioning that they baked, steamed, even boiled into their final form.
Originally it was egg that provided the thickening agent that made a pudding into a type of custard, but the invention of a stable powder-form of egg-free custard mix really helped to bring the dessert pudding into the modern day.
Chocolate pudding is of the type known as a creamy pudding, and is typically made of a combination of sugar, milk, and a thickening agent of one of broad range of things. Sometimes a gelatin was used, tapioca and cornstarch are popular, or even rice puddings.
The majority of puddings are served cold, though a few are prepared warm. Rice puddings are particularly popular as a warm served treat, and chocolate puddings are one of the few that can get away with being served warm or cold.
National Chocolate Pudding Day celebrates this diverse and delicious treat!
National Chocolate Pudding Day FAQs
Facts About National Chocolate Pudding Day
Colonial American Chocolate “Pudding” Was Baked, Not Spoonable
An 18th‑century chocolate pudding recipe linked to George Washington’s Mount Vernon shows that early American “chocolate pudding” was a baked, custard-like dish made with grated chocolate, eggs, cream, and sugar, closer to a firm baked pudding than today’s soft, spoonable dessert.
The First Recorded “Chocolate Pudding” Dates Back to 1730
Food historians trace the earliest known printed reference to “chocolate pudding” in English to 1730, when the term referred to a boiled or steamed, often bread- or suet-based pudding rather than the cornstarch-thickened chocolate custards familiar in modern American kitchens.
Chocolate Custard Helped Give Birth to Modern Chocolate Pudding
Chocolate custard, a thick, creamy dessert that relies on egg coagulation, appears in 19th‑century cookery records and is recognized by food historians as a key ancestor of modern chocolate pudding, which later incorporated starch thickeners for a more stable, spoonable texture.
Cornstarch Gelatinization Is the Hidden Engine of Pudding Texture
In many chocolate puddings, cornstarch granules start to swell and gelatinize between about 62 and 82 °C (144–180 °F), absorbing water, bursting, and releasing amylose molecules that form a gel network, which transforms a thin chocolate milk mixture into a thick, glossy dessert.
Why American “Pudding” Is Creamy While British “Pudding” Is Cake‑Like
Food-history research notes that in Britain, “pudding” traditionally meant a boiled or steamed, often suet‑rich dish that became cake‑like by the 19th century, while in the United States the word shifted to describe soft, custard- or starch-thickened desserts, which is how chocolate pudding came to mean a creamy, spoonable sweet.
Instant Chocolate Pudding Was Refined Through Food Engineering
By the late 20th century, food technologists were patenting specialized instant cocoa pudding mixes that addressed technical problems like stabilizing cocoa particles and preventing syneresis, reflecting how something as simple as chocolate pudding benefited from industrial research into starch chemistry, emulsifiers, and processing methods.
Starch and Eggs Work Together in Custard‑Style Chocolate Puddings
Food-science writers point out that many chocolate puddings rely on both starch and egg yolks: starch provides reliable thickening and opacity, while egg proteins coagulate to add richness, color, and a delicate custard structure, with the combination giving the dessert its characteristic creamy yet sliceable consistency.
