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Dessert

Chocolate Pie

A chocolate custard pie topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 custard

  1. Combine chocolate, 1 tablespoon sugar, and a little water in a saucepan, then heat until dissolved.

  2. Heat milk and 4 tablespoons sugar until hot in another saucepan.

  3. Beat egg yolks with flour in a bowl.

  4. Stir into the hot milk mixture until thick.

  5. Add the melted chocolate and 1 teaspoon vanilla to the mixture, stirring well.

Assemble and top

  1. Pour the chocolate custard into the baked pie crust.

  2. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form in a clean bowl, then gradually add 3 tablespoons sugar, beating until stiff peaks form.

  3. Spread the meringue over the chocolate custard, sealing the edges.

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. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, giving it body and moisture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they heat and add richness.
Flour
Helps thicken the custard and keep it stable when cut.
Chocolate
Gives the custard its main flavor and color.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam to form the airy, soft meringue topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilize the whipped meringue.

The step that matters

Stir the yolk mixture into the hot milk until thick. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently, but if they get too hot or are not stirred constantly they can scramble and leave lumps, so the custard stays smooth only with steady stirring.

“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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