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Chocolate Pie

A custard-like filling made with sugar, flour, cornstarch, milk, eggs, vanilla, and chocolate, poured into a baked crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix sugar, flour, cornstarch, and salt.

  2. Add beaten eggs to the dry mixture.

  3. Pour the mixture into the scalded milk and cook over medium heat until thick.

  4. Transfer to a double boiler and cook for an additional 15 minutes, stirring constantly.

Finish the pie

  1. Let the filling cool, then pour it into a baked pie crust.

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. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  4. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + chocolatetop 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

Eggs
Thicken the filling as they set with heat and add richness.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, sliceable filling as it heats.
Flour
Adds additional thickening so the custard holds its body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that thickens during cooking.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.
Chocolate
Provides the main chocolate flavor and the filling's dark color.

The step that matters

Cook the filling until thick, stirring constantly in the double boiler. Starch thickens only when heated through, so the filling must be cooked long enough to set. Constant stirring keeps the starch and egg from scorching or lumping, and gentle heat stops the eggs from curdling.

“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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