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Dessert

Chocolate Icing

A sweet icing made from egg white, water, chocolate, and confectioner's sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,404 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chocolate Icing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the egg white and add the water.

  2. Stir in confectioner's sugar until the mixture is not as thick as white icing.

  3. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over an uncovered tea kettle.

  4. Pour the melted chocolate over the egg and sugar mixture, stirring briskly.

  5. If the icing is too thin, stir in more sugar; if too stiff, add a little hot water.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + chocolatetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg white
Whipped with the water, it gives the icing a light, smooth body that holds the sugar.
Confectioner's sugar
Adds sweetness and thickness, setting the icing's consistency as it is stirred in.
Chocolate
Provides the flavour and colour of the icing once melted and stirred in.

The step that matters

Pour the melted chocolate over the egg and sugar mixture, stirring briskly. Chocolate poured into the mixture must be stirred quickly so it disperses evenly instead of forming streaks or lumps. Stirring also keeps the icing smooth as it begins to cool and thicken.

“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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