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Dessert

Chess-pie

A custard pie made with egg yolks, powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, and whipped egg whites topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Chess-pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Beat the yolks of 5 eggs with 1 cup powdered sugar until light and foamy.

  3. Beat ¾ cup butter until light, then combine with the egg mixture until smooth.

  4. Flavor with vanilla or your preferred flavoring.

  5. Line a pie plate with the crust and pour in the filling immediately.

Bake and top

  1. While the pie is baking, whisk the whites of 5 eggs until stiff, adding a little sugar while beating.

  2. Once the pie is a delicate brown, spread the whipped egg whites on top.

  3. Return the pie to the oven to lightly color the egg whites.

Serve

  1. Cut the pie into pieces immediately after removing from the oven to prevent it from falling.

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

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

  2. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 and give it a rich, custardy structure as they set.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich, tender texture and smooth mouthfeel.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the filling and dissolves smoothly into the yolks and butter.
Egg whites
Whipped into a stiff foam that forms a light, lightly browned topping.

The step that matters

Cut the pie immediately after removing from the oven. As the filling cools it contracts and sets; cutting while it is still warm and settling helps prevent the pie from falling apart or collapsing.

“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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