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 Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
In a saucepan, combine water and cornstarch, and cook over low heat until dissolved.
Add chocolate and icing sugar, stirring until smooth.
Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
Whisk in the egg yolk, brandy, and lemon juice.
Serve
Serve warm over desserts.
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).
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Chocolate + brandytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together287 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,340 recipes
Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the sauce as it heats, giving it body.
- Chocolate
- Provides the main flavour and rich texture of the sauce.
- Egg yolk
- Adds richness and helps enrich the sauce's texture once whisked in.
The step that matters
Whisk in the egg yolk after cooling slightly. If the sauce is too hot when the egg yolk goes in, the yolk can scramble and turn grainy. Letting it cool slightly first, then whisking steadily, keeps the sauce smooth.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chocolate, sugar, egg, brandy):
- Vanillafits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chocolate, sugar, egg, brandy. 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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