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Chocolate Sauce

A rich chocolate sauce made by boiling milk with chocolate, then adding a butter‑flour mixture, egg, sugar, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the milk with the grated chocolate.

  2. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and flour.

  3. Add the creamed mixture to the boiling milk.

  4. Stir in the egg, sugar, and vanilla.

  5. Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring constantly.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Grated chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and color of the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, glossy mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the sauce when cooked with the butter and milk.
Egg
Adds body and richness and helps thicken the sauce as it cooks.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the chocolate melts into and the sauce thickens in.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the bitter chocolate.

The step that matters

Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring constantly. Constant stirring keeps the flour and egg from settling and scorching on the bottom of the pan, and keeps the starch and egg proteins evenly dispersed as the sauce thickens.

“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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