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Dessert

Chocolate Pie

A chocolate filling baked in a pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Chocolate Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Dissolve the chocolate in hot water.

  2. In a bowl, mix sugar and flour together.

  3. Add the beaten egg yolk to the sugar and flour mixture.

  4. Stir in the dissolved chocolate, boiling water, and salt.

  5. Cook the mixture in a double boiler until thick.

  6. Once cool, add vanilla.

Bake and assemble

  1. Prepare a pie crust and bake it.

  2. Fill the baked crust with the chocolate filling and frost as desired.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and colour of the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps set its smooth texture.
Flour
Thickens the filling as it cooks.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps thicken and emulsify the custard.

The step that matters

Cooking the filling in a double boiler until thick. Starch thickens only when heated enough, but egg yolk can curdle or scramble if it gets too hot. Gentle, indirect heat in a double boiler lets the flour thicken the filling smoothly while the yolk stays silky. Stir constantly to avoid lumps.

“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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