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Dessert

Chocolate Pie

A chocolate filling baked in a pie crust topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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. Preheat the oven and bake the pie crust first.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks, corn starch, chocolate, and sugar.

  2. Stir the mixture into the boiling water until thickened.

  3. Pour the chocolate filling into the baked crust.

Top and brown

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff and spread on top of the pie.

  2. Return the pie to the oven until the meringue is 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. Corn + chocolatetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  4. Corn + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 recipes

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

  5. Egg + chocolatetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken and enrich the filling, adding richness and a smooth custard body.
Corn starch
Thickens the boiling water mixture into a set, sliceable filling.
Chocolate
Provides the main chocolate flavour and colour of the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.
Egg whites
Whipped into a stiff meringue that forms the topping and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Stirring the mixture into the boiling water until thickened. Corn starch only thickens fully once it reaches a boil, so the filling must be stirred constantly while it thickens. Undercooked starch leaves the filling thin and runny.

“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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