Why it works: Sugar and chocolate 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 ↓
Ghogolate Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
Heat the milk, sugar, and chocolate together in a saucepan.
Mix the cornstarch with a little cold milk, then add it to the saucepan.
Stir in the beaten egg yolks and let the mixture come to a boil.
Bake and assemble
Line a pie tin with pie crust and bake until golden.
Pour the chocolate cream into the baked pie crust.
Make a meringue with the egg whites and spread it over the pie.
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.
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Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,128 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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 chocolate filling and add richness when cooked with the milk.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the milk mixture as it heats, giving the filling a sliceable body.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a meringue that forms a light, airy topping on the pie.
- Grated chocolate
- Gives the filling its chocolate flavor and color.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps stabilize the whipped meringue.
The step that matters
Bringing the filling to a boil after adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks must be cooked enough to thicken the filling and be safe to eat, but overheating can make them curdle. Cornstarch needs to reach a boil to reach full thickening power, so the filling should be stirred constantly while it comes up to a boil.
“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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