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Dessert

Chocolate Pie

A chocolate custard pie baked in a pre‑baked crust, finished with meringue.

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

Prepare the crust

  1. Line a pie pan with dough for a custard pie.

  2. Prick the crust with a fork.

  3. Bake the crust.

Make the custard

  1. In a double boiler, heat the sweet milk and grated chocolate, stirring until melted.

  2. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks and cornstarch, then stir into the hot milk mixture.

  3. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

  4. Add vanilla extract and sugar to taste.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the filling into the baked crust and return to the oven until a skin forms on top.

  2. Top with meringue and return to the oven until set.

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. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

Vanilla and sugar 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

Sweet milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that sets when heated.
Chocolate
Melts into the milk to give the custard its flavor and color.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they heat and give it richness.
Cornstarch
Thickens the custard so it holds its shape when cut.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard while stirring constantly. Egg yolks can curdle or turn grainy if they overheat in one spot. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly so the starch and yolks thicken the custard smoothly.

“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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