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Dessert

Chocolate Cream Sauce

A chocolate sauce made with sugar, butter, sweet cream, cocoa, cornstarch, egg yolks, salt, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Chocolate Cream Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Combine two tablespoonfuls pulverized sugar, one tablespoonful butter, one cupful sweet cream, two tablespoonfuls cocoa, one teaspoonful cornstarch, four yolks of eggs, salt, and vanilla.

  2. Dissolve sugar and chocolate in a double boiler, adding cream gradually; let come near a boil.

  3. Add the beaten yolks and starch, stir until it thickens – more cornstarch may be necessary.

  4. Take off the fire, add the butter, strain and flavor.

Serve

  1. Very nice with chopped nuts added.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

788Calories
21 gProtein
21 gFat
126 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Chocolate1 oz (28g) semisweet155
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Cream + cocoatop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together304 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Sugar + cocoatop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together956 recipes

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

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the cream as they cook, giving the sauce body.
Cornstarch
Starch thickens the sauce when heated, giving it a smooth consistency.
Cocoa
Provides the chocolate flavor and color of the sauce.
Sweet cream
Forms the liquid base and adds richness and moisture.
Butter (in the method)
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel when stirred in off the heat.

The step that matters

Stir until it thickens. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if overheated, so keep the heat gentle and stir constantly. Starch needs heat to thicken, so the sauce may need more cornstarch if it stays thin.

Swap the cocoa

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, egg. 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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