Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Chocolate Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the chocolate in a saucepan.
In a separate pot, boil the sugar and water for 5 minutes to make a syrup.
Pour the syrup over the melted chocolate and stir well.
Blend the corn starch into the rich milk, then add it to the chocolate mixture.
Boil for a few minutes, add your chosen flavoring, and strain the sauce.
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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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,128 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Chocolate + corntop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together987 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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 body of the sauce once melted.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the sauce and, dissolved as a syrup, helps give it a smooth pourable texture.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the sauce as it boils, giving it body.
- Rich milk
- Adds creaminess and moisture, softening the chocolate into a smooth sauce.
The step that matters
Blending the corn starch into the milk before adding it. Corn starch clumps if it hits hot liquid directly. Blending it into cold milk first disperses the granules so the sauce thickens evenly when boiled.
“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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