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Dessert

Chocolate Cream Pie

A chocolate custard filling spread between cake layers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 Cream Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate cream

  1. In a bowl, combine the grated chocolate, powdered sugar, and egg yolks.

  2. Pour in the boiling milk and stir until it forms a smooth cream.

Assemble

  1. Spread the chocolate cream between layers of cake.

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. Vanilla + milktop 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. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

Sweet vanilla chocolate
Melts into the cream to give it its body, richness, and flavor.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help the cream thicken and set as it cools.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into the cream, adding sweetness with a smooth texture.
Boiling milk
Melts the chocolate and loosens the mixture into a smooth, spreadable cream.

The step that matters

Pour in the boiling milk and stir until smooth. The hot milk must melt the chocolate fully while stirring, otherwise bits of unmelted chocolate stay grainy. Stirring also gently heats the egg yolks, which helps the cream thicken.

“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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