Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Chocolate Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
Mix sugar, chocolate, corn starch, and egg yolks in a bowl.
Pour the mixture into 1 pint of boiling milk and water.
Cook until thick.
Flavor with vanilla.
Pour the filling into a pre-baked pie crust.
Top and brown
Beat egg whites with 2 tablespoons of sugar until stiff peaks form.
Spread the meringue over the pie filling.
Brown the meringue in the oven.
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.
-
Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
-
Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,020 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
-
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,943 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
-
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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
- Corn starch
- Thickens the filling as it cooks, giving it a smooth, sliceable body.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help thicken the custard-style filling.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a foam that forms the meringue topping.
- Chocolate
- Provides the chocolate flavour and dark colour of the filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps stabilise the whipped egg white meringue.
The step that matters
Cook the filling until thick. Corn starch thickens only when it is heated enough for its granules to swell and gelatinise. Stopping early leaves a runny filling that will not hold its shape when cut.
“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
You might also like
Chocolate Cream171 recipes
Vanilla Ice Cream108 recipes
Corn Cake90 recipes
Corn Starch Cake89 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.