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Dessert

Chess Pie

A sweet pie with a buttery filling topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. 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 crust

  1. Line a pie pan with the crust.

  2. Prick the crust with a fork.

  3. Bake the crust at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

Make the filling

  1. Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth.

  2. Add the beaten yolks of the eggs and mix well.

  3. Spread the tart jelly over the baked crust.

  4. Pour the egg, butter, and sugar mixture on top.

  5. Return to the oven until delicately browned.

Make the meringue and finish

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Add the sugar gradually to the whites.

  3. Spread the meringue over the pie.

  4. Return to the oven to 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. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with sugar to give the filling a rich, smooth, tender body.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and, creamed with butter, helps give it a fine texture.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the filling and whites whip into a stable meringue topping.
Tart jelly
Adds a sharp fruity layer that balances the sweetness of the filling.

The step that matters

Returning the pie to the oven until delicately browned. Filling set by egg yolks can curdle or turn grainy if overbaked, while underbaking leaves it runny. Watching for a delicate brown colour helps the custard set 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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