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Vanilla Ice Cream with Hot Chocolate Sauce

A vanilla ice cream topped with a hot chocolate sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 ↓

Vanilla Ice Cream with Hot Chocolate Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the vanilla base

  1. Scald the heavy cream with the split vanilla bean.

  2. Scrape the vanilla seeds into the cream.

  3. Rub the vanilla seeds with 10 ounces of sugar.

  4. Add the sugar-coated seeds to the hot cream and stir until dissolved.

  5. Remove the mixture from heat.

  6. Let the mixture cool completely.

  7. Add 1 quart of raw cream to the cooled mixture.

Churn and ripen

  1. Churn the mixture in an ice cream maker until icy cold.

  2. Freeze the churned ice cream.

  3. Remove the dasher from the ice cream maker.

  4. Cork the hole in the lid.

  5. Re-pack the ice cream maker and let it ripen for 2 hours.

Make the chocolate sauce and serve

  1. Combine 4 ounces of chocolate, 1 cup of sugar, and ½ cup of milk in a saucepan.

  2. Cook the mixture slowly until melted.

  3. Boil the sauce until it slightly hardens when dropped in cold water.

  4. Serve the hot sauce over the 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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  2. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

Vanilla and sugar 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

Heavy cream
Provides fat that makes the ice cream rich and creamy in texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers the freezing point so the ice cream stays scoopable.
Raw cream
Adds fat and moisture that give the churned ice cream a smooth, tender body.
Chocolate
Supplies the flavour and, once melted and boiled with sugar and milk, thickens the sauce.
Milk
Adds liquid to the chocolate sauce so it melts smoothly and pours easily.

The step that matters

Boil the chocolate sauce until it slightly hardens in cold water. Sugar concentration sets the sauce's thickness. Boiling too little leaves it runny, while boiling too long makes it stiff and grainy when cooled.

“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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