Why it works: Chocolate and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,404 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Chocolate Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the chocolate base
Bring 1 gallon of water to a boil in a pot.
Add 12 ounces of finely pounded chocolate and stir until dissolved.
Remove from heat and let it cool until nearly cold.
Skim off any grease that forms on top.
Add sugar and strain
Return to heat and add 12 ½ pounds of sugar, stirring until dissolved.
Remove from heat and strain into a jug.
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.
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Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chocolate
- Gives the syrup its chocolate flavour and dark colour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and gives it body as it dissolves in the hot liquid.
The step that matters
Skim off the grease before adding the sugar. As the chocolate cools, its fat rises to the surface. If it is not skimmed off, it stays in the syrup and makes it greasy or cloudy.
“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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