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Dessert

Chocolate Pie

A chocolate filling baked in a pie shell, topped with a whipped egg white glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Chocolate Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the chocolate filling

  1. Mix sugar, corn starch, and grated chocolate in a bowl.

  2. Gradually pour in boiling water while stirring constantly and cook for five minutes.

  3. Add the beaten egg yolks and cook for two more minutes over low heat.

  4. Stir in the butter and a few drops of vanilla.

Assemble and bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a pre-baked pie shell.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff, then add powdered sugar and vanilla.

  3. Spread the egg white mixture over the chocolate filling.

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until light brown.

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  3. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, 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

Grated chocolate
Provides the main chocolate flavour and body of the filling.
Corn starch
Thickens the boiling water mixture into a smooth, sliceable filling.
Eggs
Egg yolks enrich and set the filling, while whites whip into the topping structure.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, glossy texture to the filling.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the egg white topping and helps it stay stable.

The step that matters

Cooking the starch filling. Corn starch must be stirred constantly while boiling so it thickens evenly without lumps or scorching. Egg yolks added to hot mixture should be cooked gently over low heat so they thicken the filling without curdling.

“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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