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Dessert

Chocolate Pie

A chocolate custard pie made with cocoa, milk, sugar, butter, corn starch, eggs, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Chocolate Pie

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine four tablespoons cocoa, three cups milk, three-fourths cup sugar, and butter the size of a walnut.

  2. Cook together.

  3. Add two scant tablespoons of corn starch dissolved in a portion of the milk.

  4. After the mixture has thickened, add three well beaten eggs.

  5. Remove from stove and flavor with vanilla.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

886Calories
29 gProtein
23 gFat
137 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Chocolate1 oz (28g) semisweet155
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  2. Cocoa + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together643 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Cocoa + corntop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Cocoa
Provides the chocolate flavor and dark color of the filling.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk mixture as it heats, giving the filling its body.
Eggs
Add richness and help set the filling once it is heated.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard filling.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs after thickening. Eggs scrambled in a hot mixture curdle, so the cornstarch must thicken the filling first and the eggs should be added only once it has thickened.

Swap the cocoa

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, corn, egg):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Peanutfits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Cocoathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, corn, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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