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Dessert

Chocolate Pie

A chocolate filling baked in a pie crust, topped with whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,404 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chocolate Pie

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.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine grated chocolate and water. Bring to a boil.

  2. In a bowl, mix egg yolks, cornstarch, and sugar until smooth.

  3. Slowly add the chocolate mixture to the egg mixture, stirring constantly until thick.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in butter until melted.

  5. Pour the filling into the baked pie crust.

Top and bake

  1. Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form and spread over the filling.

  2. Brown the pie in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the top is golden.

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. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Chocolate + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,543 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Grated chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and body of the filling.
Egg yolks
Thicken the filling as they set with heat, giving a custard-like body.
Cornstarch
Thickens the filling by swelling in hot liquid, giving it a firm set.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps keep the custard smooth.
Egg whites
Whipped into a meringue topping that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Stirring the filling as it thickens. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if they get too hot too fast. Constant stirring while adding the hot chocolate mixture keeps the custard smooth and lets the cornstarch thicken evenly.

“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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