Name: Chocolate Pie
Ingredients: 1 cup milk; 2 heaping tablespoons grated chocolate; ¾ cup sugar; 3 egg yolks; 1 teaspoon vanilla; 3 egg whites (for meringue)

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

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the filling

Heat the milk and grated chocolate together in a saucepan.
Beat the sugar and egg yolks until creamy in a separate bowl.
Combine the chocolate mixture with the sugar and egg yolks.
Add vanilla to the mixture.

Bake and top

Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.
Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Spread the meringue over the top of the pie.
Brown the meringue slightly in the oven before serving.

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.

Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,020 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,404 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Milk + chocolatetop 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 filling as they set, giving it a rich, creamy structure.
Egg whites: Whipped into a meringue that forms a light, airy topping that browns in the oven.
Milk: Forms the liquid base of the filling that the chocolate and eggs are combined into.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and helps the egg yolks become creamy when beaten.
Grated chocolate: Provides the chocolate flavor and color of the filling.