Name: Chocolate Pie
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon Baker's chocolate, grated; 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour; 2 egg yolks; ½ cup sugar; 1 pint sweet milk; 2 egg whites (for frosting)

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

Prepare the filling

Grate the chocolate into a dish.
Add the flour, egg yolks, and sugar; beat until well combined.
Stir in the sweet milk.

Bake and finish

Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake.
Whip the egg whites to make frosting for the pie.

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.

Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,404 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,128 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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: Enriches the filling and helps it set into a custard when baked.
All-purpose flour: Thickens the filling so it holds its shape when baked.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.
Sweet milk: Provides the liquid that gives the filling its smooth, custard-like body.
Baker's chocolate: Gives the filling its chocolate flavor and color.
Egg whites: Whipped into a foam that forms a light, airy frosting on top.

“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.