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Dessert

Chocolate Pie

A chocolate custard pie topped with a sweet meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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

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.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and chocolate together.

  2. Add the egg yolks, sugar, milk or cream, cornstarch, and vanilla.

  3. Cook until thick.

  4. Pour the mixture into pie crusts and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.

Make the meringue and finish

  1. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, then gradually add the powdered sugar.

  2. Spread the meringue over the pies and brown slightly 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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  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

Egg yolks
Thicken the filling as they set, giving it a rich, custard-like body.
Egg whites
Whip into a foam that forms the stable, light meringue topping.
Cornstarch
Thickens the filling by gelatinizing when heated, so it sets firmly when cooled.
Chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and deep color of the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and smooth mouthfeel to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps stabilize the meringue.

The step that matters

Cook until thick. The filling must be cooked long enough for the cornstarch to fully gelatinize and the egg yolks to thicken it; undercooking leaves it runny, and it will not set properly once cooled.

“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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