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Dessert

Chocolate Custard Pie

A chocolate custard pie made with chocolate, eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, and pie shells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 Custard Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate base

  1. Dissolve the chocolate in a little milk.

  2. Stir the chocolate mixture into the boiling water.

  3. Boil for 3 minutes.

Make the custard

  1. When nearly cold, beat the yolks of all the eggs and the whites of 3 eggs together.

  2. Stir this mixture into the milk and season.

  3. Pour the mixture into pie shells.

Top the pie

  1. Whip the remaining egg whites to a froth with 2 tablespoons sugar.

  2. Spread the froth over the custard.

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. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Chocolate + milktop 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

Eggs
Yolks and whites thicken the custard and give it a set, creamy structure.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and adds richness and softness.
Baker's chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and dark color of the custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and the whipped egg white topping.
Vanilla
Adds a warm aroma that rounds out the chocolate flavor.

The step that matters

Add the eggs only when the chocolate mixture is nearly cold. Egg proteins begin to set around moderate heat, so beating eggs into a still-hot liquid can scramble them and leave a grainy custard. Cooling the mixture first lets the eggs blend in smoothly and thicken gently.

“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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