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Dessert

Chocolate Pie

A chocolate custard pie topped with a browned meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. 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 custard

  1. In a saucepan, combine milk, cocoa powder, egg yolks, and cornstarch.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened.

  3. Pour the custard into the baked pie crust.

Top and bake

  1. Beat the reserved egg white until stiff peaks form, then spread over the custard.

  2. Brown the meringue in a 350°F (175°C) oven until golden.

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 + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  2. Milk + cocoa powdertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Cocoa powder + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that sets when cooked.
Cocoa powder
Provides the chocolate flavor and deep color of the filling.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness as they cook.
Egg white
Whipped into stiff peaks to form the meringue topping.
Cornstarch
Thickens the custard by swelling in heat as it cooks.

The step that matters

Cook the custard until thickened. Cooking with constant stirring keeps the egg yolks and milk from scorching or lumping, and the starch needs to reach a full boil to thicken properly.

“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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