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Dessert

Chocolate Pie

A chocolate custard pie with a baked crust and whipped cream topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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. Beat sugar, milk, and butter together.

  2. Add grated chocolate, beaten egg yolks, cornstarch dissolved in a little cold milk, and vanilla.

  3. Stir the mixture over heat until thick and smooth.

Assemble and serve

  1. Make a pie crust large enough for your pie plate and bake it.

  2. Fill the baked crust with the chocolate custard.

  3. Top with whipped cream.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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 custard and add richness as they set with heat.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk-based custard as it heats, giving it a smooth body.
Grated chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and helps give the custard its body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that thickens on heating.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Stir the custard over heat until thick and smooth. Cornstarch and egg yolks thicken only when heated enough, but overheating can scorch the milk or curdle the eggs. Stir constantly over gentle heat so the starch swells evenly and the custard stays smooth.

“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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