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Dessert

Chocolate Pie

A chocolate filling baked in pastry shells and topped with stiff‑poured egg‑white meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and sugar 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 ↓

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 filling

  1. Combine grated chocolate and cold water in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until thickened.

  2. Mix egg yolks, cornstarch, and sugar in a separate bowl; gradually add to the chocolate mixture, stirring constantly.

Bake and assemble

  1. Bake pastry shells until golden brown.

  2. Pour the chocolate filling into the baked pastry shells.

  3. Whip egg whites until stiff peaks form and spread on top of the filling.

  4. Return to the oven at 350°F (175°C) until the meringue is set.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  3. Chocolate + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

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

What each ingredient does

Grated chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and, once cooked, the body of the filling.
Egg yolks
Thicken the filling and add richness as they set with the starch.
Cornstarch
Thickens the chocolate mixture into a sliceable, creamy filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps balance the bitterness of the chocolate.
Egg whites
Whipped into a meringue that forms a light topping which sets in the oven.

The step that matters

Gradually add the yolk mixture to the hot chocolate, stirring constantly. Adding the egg yolks and starch too quickly or without constant stirring can cause lumps or scrambled yolks. Stirring while adding evenly distributes the heat so the filling thickens smoothly.

“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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