Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. 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
Boil the milk and butter together.
Sift the sugar and cocoa together.
Stir the sifted sugar and cocoa into the boiling mixture.
Dissolve the cornstarch in ½ cup of the milk.
Beat in the egg yolks.
Mix the cornstarch mixture with the boiling mixture.
Stir until it boils.
Pour the mixture into a pie shell.
Top and bake
Cover the top with beaten egg whites.
Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar on top.
Brown in the oven at 350°F (175°C).
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cocoa + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together643 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
-
Cocoa + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together548 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-undecalactone (coconut, creamy).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cocoa
- Provides the chocolate flavour and colour of the filling.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard and add richness to the filling.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the milk mixture so the filling sets smoothly when boiled.
- Egg whites
- Form the topping that puffs and browns in the oven.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the thickeners set into a custard.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture in the filling.
The step that matters
Stir until it boils. Cornstarch only thickens fully once the mixture reaches a boil, so stop too early and the filling stays thin. Stir constantly so it does not scorch on the bottom of the pan.
Swap the cocoa
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, milk, butter):
- Pecansfits better
- Almondfits better
- Cocoathe original
- Walnutfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, milk, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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