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Dessert

Chocolate Pie

A chocolate pie with a pastry crust, chocolate filling, and meringue topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Beat the yolks of two eggs with ½ cup of sugar.

  2. Melt 2 ounces of sweet chocolate and add it to the egg mixture along with 1 cup of milk.

Bake the crust

  1. Line a pie plate with pastry, prick it with a fork, and brush with the egg white.

  2. Bake the crust in a 350°F (175°C) oven until half done.

Assemble and finish

  1. Pour the chocolate mixture into the crust and finish baking.

  2. Cool slightly, then cover with a meringue made from the egg whites, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and vanilla to taste.

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. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Chocolate + milktop 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the chocolate filling as they set during baking.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and, whipped with egg whites, stabilizes the meringue.
Sweet chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and body of the filling.
Milk
Adds liquid and richness so the filling bakes into a smooth custard.
Egg whites
Whipped into a meringue that forms the light, browned topping.

The step that matters

Baking the filling until set. Egg yolks set as they heat, so the filling must bake long enough to firm up but not so long that it curdles or weeps.

“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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