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Dessert

Chocolate Syrup, No. 3

A thick chocolate syrup made by boiling cocoa with simple syrup, starch, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cocoa and vanilla work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 357 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Chocolate Syrup, No. 3

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a large pot, combine cocoa and simple syrup. Bring to a boil.

  2. Remove from heat and add starch dissolved in a small amount of water.

  3. Return to heat and bring to a boil again, then remove from heat.

Finish

  1. Once cooled, stir in vanilla extract.

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. Cocoa + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together357 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Syrup + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cocoa + syruptop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cocoa
Provides the chocolate flavour and dark colour of the syrup.
Simple syrup
Supplies the sweetness and liquid base that carries the cocoa.
Starch
Thickens the syrup into a pourable, glossy consistency when heated.
Vanilla extract
Adds aromatic flavour that rounds out the chocolate.

The step that matters

Adding the dissolved starch. Starch must be fully dissolved in cold water before it goes into hot syrup, otherwise it clumps. Bringing the syrup back to a boil activates the starch so it thickens properly.

Swap the cocoa

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (syrup, vanilla):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Hazelnutfits better
  3. Almondfits better
  4. Cocoathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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