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 Pies
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
Beat the yolks of 4 eggs well.
In a double boiler, combine the egg yolks, sweet milk, chocolate, flour, butter, and vanilla.
Cook until thick, then let cool before adding to the crust.
Prepare the crust and meringue
Partially bake the crust before adding the filling.
Make meringue by beating 1 egg white and gradually adding 4 tablespoons of sugar until stiff peaks form.
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.
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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,020 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Vanilla and sugar 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 custard and add richness as they set during cooking.
- Flour
- Thickens the filling so it sets firm enough to slice.
- Chocolate
- Provides the main flavor and color of the filling.
- Sweet milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard filling.
- Egg white
- Whipped with sugar to form a stable, airy meringue topping.
The step that matters
Cook the filling until thick. Egg yolks and flour thicken as they heat, but overheating can curdle the yolks. Cook gently over the double boiler, stirring, until the custard coats a spoon, then let it cool before filling the crust.
“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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