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Dessert

Chocolate Pie

Chocolate pie with a chocolate filling and browned egg white topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

Prepare the crust

  1. Bake the pie crust first.

Make the filling

  1. Dissolve the chocolate in 1/4 cup milk over medium heat until it boils.

  2. Add 1 teaspoon cornstarch to the chocolate mixture.

  3. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks with 1/2 cup sugar.

  4. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the yolk mixture.

  5. Combine the yolk mixture with the chocolate mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the filling into the baked crust and bake until set.

  2. Spread the beaten egg whites on top and bake until lightly browned.

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. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

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

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

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

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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the filling and whites, beaten stiff, form a light topping that browns.
Chocolate
Provides the main chocolate flavor and body of the filling.
Cornstarch
Thickens the chocolate mixture so the filling sets smoothly.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps stabilize the beaten egg whites.
Milk
Liquid that dissolves the chocolate and gives the filling its creamy moisture.

The step that matters

Pour the filling into the baked crust and bake until set. Egg yolks set when heated, but overbaking can make the custard weep or turn rubbery. Bake just until the center is set so the filling stays smooth and tender.

“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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