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Dessert

Chocolate Pie

A chocolate pie with a lard crust and chocolate filling thickened with cornstarch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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.

Prepare the crust

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Line a pie pan with a crust made from lard, water, flour, and salt. Place a pan of the same shape on the crust while baking to keep it smooth.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, stir the grated chocolate into the hot water until smooth.

  2. Add butter, sugar, beaten egg yolks, and vanilla to the chocolate mixture.

  3. Dissolve cornstarch in a little water, then add the dissolved cornstarch to the mixture.

  4. Cook until smooth and thick.

  5. Pour the filling into the crust.

  6. Let it cool.

Top and brown

  1. Spread the frosting made from beaten egg whites and sugar on top.

  2. Brown the pie in the oven.

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 + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, 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

Lard
Shortens the crust, making it tender and flaky.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the crust together.
Chocolate
Gives the filling its chocolate flavor and color.
Egg yolks
Thicken and enrich the filling, adding richness and body.
Cornstarch
Thickens the filling as it cooks, giving it a smooth, sliceable set.
Egg whites
Whipped into the topping, they provide a light, meringue-like top that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Cook the filling until smooth and thick. Cornstarch thickens only when the mixture reaches a full simmer and is stirred well; undercooked filling stays runny and may not set, while lumps form if the starch is not fully dissolved first.

“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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