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Chocolate Sauce for Vanilla Ice Cream

A chocolate sauce made with chocolate, sugar, butter, water, and cinnamon, served hot over vanilla ice cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chocolate Sauce for Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the chocolate with the butter and water in a saucepan.

  2. Add the sugar and cinnamon, stirring until combined.

  3. Cook until a soft ball forms when tested in cold water.

Serve

  1. Serve hot over vanilla ice cream.

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. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Chocolate + cinnamontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,808 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Chocolate + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,543 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 chocolate flavor and body to the sauce.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, when cooked down, helps the sauce set to a thick texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, glossy mouthfeel.
Cinnamon
Adds warm aroma that complements the chocolate.

The step that matters

Cook until a soft ball forms when tested in cold water.. As water evaporates, the sugar concentration rises and the sauce thickens. Stopping too early leaves it thin, while cooking too far can make it stiff or grainy once it cools.

“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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