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Dessert

Chocolate Pie

A custard filling made with sugar, cornstarch, salt, chocolate, milk, egg yolk, and vanilla, baked in a pie crust.

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 Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix the sugar, cornstarch, and salt.

  2. Add the milk and egg yolk, then cook over medium heat until thickened.

  3. Stir in the chocolate and vanilla, and mix until smooth.

Assemble and bake

  1. Cool slightly before pouring into a pre-baked pie crust.

  2. Top with meringue and return to the oven to bake the meringue.

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

Cornstarch
Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, sliceable custard as it cooks.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps set the custard as it cooks.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.
Baker's chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and deep color of the filling.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that thickens into the custard.

The step that matters

Cook the filling until thickened. Cornstarch needs to reach a simmer over medium heat to swell and thicken fully. Undercooked starch leaves the filling thin and runny, and it may not set when cooled.

“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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