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Dessert

Chocolate Filling

A pie with chocolate filling, cream filling, and meringue topping.

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

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. Beat the egg yolk until light, then add water.

  2. Mix sugar, flour, chocolate, and salt together, then add to the egg mixture.

  3. Pour the mixture into a double boiler and cook until thick, stirring constantly.

  4. Once thick, remove from heat and add butter and vanilla.

Assemble and bake

  1. Spread the chocolate filling over the cream filling in the pie.

  2. Make a meringue from the two egg whites and place it on top.

  3. Bake the pie in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 12 minutes after adding the 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. 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 + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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

Egg yolk
Thickens the custard filling as it cooks and adds richness.
Egg whites
Whip into a foam that gives the meringue its airy structure.
Flour
Absorbs liquid as it cooks, thickening the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps stabilise the meringue.
Bitter chocolate
Provides the main chocolate flavour and dark colour.

The step that matters

Cooking the filling until thick. Flour thickens only once the mixture is hot enough, and constant stirring in the double boiler prevents scorching and lumps. Stop when it is thick, since overcooking can make the starch-thickened filling stiff or grainy.

“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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