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Dessert

Chocolate Sauce

A smooth chocolate sauce made with boiling water, milk, sugar, chocolate, butter, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

Prepare

  1. Boil the water and milk with the sugar for five minutes.

  2. Shave the chocolate.

Make the sauce

  1. Dissolve the shaved chocolate in a saucepan.

  2. Gradually add the boiled mixture to the chocolate.

  3. Add the butter.

  4. Boil for one minute.

  5. Flavor with vanilla.

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. Milk + buttertop 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. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Chocolate
Provides the main flavor and, once melted, the rich body of the sauce.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, mellowing the chocolate into a smooth sauce.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the bitterness of the chocolate.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a glossy, smooth finish.
Vanilla
Adds aroma that rounds out the chocolate flavor.

The step that matters

Gradually add the boiled mixture to the chocolate.. Pouring hot liquid into melted chocolate all at once can make it seize and turn grainy or lumpy. Adding it slowly while stirring lets the chocolate blend evenly into a smooth sauce.

“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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