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Dessert

Chocolate Pie

A chocolate filling topped with meringue baked in a pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,404 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. 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 bowl, mix chocolate, butter, sugar, egg yolks, and cornstarch, add hot water last, and stir until combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a saucepan and cook over medium heat until thickened.

  3. Spread the thickened chocolate mixture onto a baked pie crust.

Make the meringue and bake

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, then gradually add powdered sugar.

  2. Spread the meringue over the chocolate filling.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until the meringue is set.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Chocolate + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,543 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chocolate
Gives the filling its main flavor and deep color.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help thicken the filling as they cook.
Cornstarch
Thickens the filling when heated with the liquid.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that holds the meringue's shape while baking.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and dissolves into the meringue for a smoother foam.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer filling.

The step that matters

Cook the filling until thickened. Cornstarch only reaches its full thickening power when the mixture comes to a boil, so a filling that stays runny may need more cooking time over medium heat.

“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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