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Dessert

Chocolate Frosting

A chocolate frosting made with sugar, cream or milk and butter, chocolate, salt, optional cinnamon bark, and vanilla extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar, cream (or milk and butter), scraped chocolate, salt, and cinnamon if using.

  2. Cook without stirring until the mixture can form a fine thread when tested.

  3. Remove from heat and let it cool.

  4. Once cool, beat the mixture until it reaches a thick cream consistency.

  5. If not using cinnamon, add vanilla extract for flavor.

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 + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Granulated sugar
Sweetens the frosting and, when cooked, helps it set firm as it cools.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the frosting a smooth, rich texture.
Chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and fat that give the frosting body.

The step that matters

Cook without stirring until a fine thread forms. Stirring during cooking can trigger sugar crystallization, leaving the frosting grainy. The thread test shows the sugar has reached the concentration needed to set properly when cooled and beaten.

“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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