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Dessert

Chocolate Pie

A custard chocolate filling topped with meringue in a pre-baked crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 saucepan, bring milk and sugar to a boil.

  2. Mix cornstarch with a little milk, then add to the boiling mixture.

  3. Stir in grated chocolate and vanilla extract.

  4. Remove from heat and add beaten egg yolks.

Assemble and top

  1. Pour the filling into a pre-baked pie crust.

  2. Whip egg whites until stiff and spread over the filling as meringue.

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

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

  4. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard filling.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness when stirred into the hot mixture.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, sliceable filling as it heats.
Grated chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and deep colour of the filling.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that forms the light, airy meringue topping.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks off the heat. Egg yolks can scramble if they meet very hot liquid directly. Removing the pan from the heat before adding them, and stirring constantly, keeps the custard smooth while it thickens.

“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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