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Hot Chocolate Sauce for Ice Cream

A hot chocolate sauce made with water, sugar, cinnamon, cornstarch, chocolate, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Hot Chocolate Sauce for Ice Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil the water, sugar, and cinnamon stick together.

  2. Strain the syrup after 5 minutes of boiling.

Thicken and finish

  1. Dissolve the cornstarch in cold water and stir it into the syrup.

  2. Add the grated chocolate rubbed smooth in a little water.

  3. Return to the fire and stir until you have a smooth, thick sauce.

  4. Remove from heat and add the vanilla extract.

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. Cinnamon + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cinnamon + chocolatetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,808 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

Cornstarch
Thickens the sauce as it heats, giving it a smooth, body-rich texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the sauce its syrupy body.
Grated chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and fat that make the sauce rich.
Vanilla extract
Adds aroma that rounds out the chocolate flavour.

The step that matters

Return to the fire and stir until smooth and thick. Cornstarch only thickens once it is heated to a boil, and it can clump if it is not dispersed first. Stirring while it heats keeps the starch granules separated so the sauce turns smooth rather than lumpy.

“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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