I decided to take a crack at making homemade chocolate syrup last night, and printed out Alton Brown’s Cocoa Syrup recipe from the Food Network site. I really should have gone to the Alton Brown fan page to check out the episode transcript just to see what details I missed, because when the printed recipe says to only reduce the syrup “until slightly thickened,” they sure as heck mean the slightly. I underestimated exactly how much the sauce would thicken as it cooled, and wound up with something almost like chocolate tar. I reheated the syrup and mixed in some more water, and the end result is still awfully tasty stuff, but I have a hunch the second go-round will be even better. Still, I guess screwing up the recipe the first time is half the fun of cooking. OK, maybe a quarter of the fun. Do I hear an eighth?