Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Pie

A chocolate pie with a crust, chocolate filling, and meringue topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

Make the filling

  1. Combine grated chocolate and water in a saucepan.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Whisk egg yolks, cornstarch, and sugar together in a bowl.

  4. Add the whisked mixture to the chocolate and cook until thick.

  5. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Assemble and bake

  1. Pre-bake the pie crust until lightly golden.

  2. Pour the chocolate filling into the crust.

  3. Beat egg whites with a little sugar until stiff peaks form.

  4. Spread the meringue over the filling.

  5. Bake until the meringue is golden 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. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the filling and add richness and a smooth, custard-like texture.
Cornstarch
Thickens the chocolate mixture as it cooks, giving the filling body and a sliceable set.
Grated chocolate
Provides the main chocolate flavour and dark colour of the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps stabilise the egg white meringue.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that forms the meringue topping, which sets and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Cooking the filling until thick. Cornstarch only thickens fully when the mixture reaches a boil and is stirred while cooking. Undercooked starch leaves a runny filling that will not set when cooled, and the egg yolks must be kept moving so they do not scramble.

“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.

More chocolate pie recipes

Filling 3 See all 137 →

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesChocolate FudgeChocolate Fudge55 recipes