Name: Cinnamon, Mace or Clove Chocolate
Ingredients: 1½ to 2 ounces of cinnamon, mace, or clove (powdered); 4 ounces of chocolate (prepared without sugar); 1 ounce of vanilla; 1 ounce of sugar

Why it works: Cinnamon and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Cinnamon, Mace or Clove Chocolate

Ingredients

1½ to 2 ounces of cinnamon, mace, or clove (powdered)
4 ounces of chocolate (prepared without sugar)
1 ounce of vanilla
1 ounce of sugar

Directions

Make the spice blend

Pound the chocolate and vanilla together until fine.
Add the powdered spice to the mixture.
Mix well with the sugar.

Store

Store in a tin box.

Use

Use about a dozen grains in the chocolate pot for flavor.

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.

Cinnamon + vanillatop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,287 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,020 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cinnamon + chocolatetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,808 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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: Forms the main body of the drink and carries its cocoa flavor.
Vanilla: Adds a sweet, aromatic note that rounds out the chocolate.
Sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the bitterness of the chocolate.
Powdered cinnamon, mace, or clove: Supplies warm aromatic spice that flavors the chocolate.

“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.