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Dessert

Chocolate Filling and Frosting

A chocolate filling and frosting made with flour, sugar, egg, scalded milk, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and melted chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla 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 ↓

Chocolate Filling and Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Mix ½ cup of flour with ½ cup of sugar in a bowl.

  2. Add 1 egg and beat thoroughly.

  3. Stir in 1 cup of scalded milk and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  4. Set aside to cool.

Make the frosting

  1. In another bowl, beat 1 cup of butter with 1 cup of powdered sugar.

  2. Add the cooled mixture, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, and ½ square of melted chocolate.

  3. Spread the frosting when cool.

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. Milk + vanillatop 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour
Thickens the cooked milk mixture so it sets into a stable filling.
Egg
Adds structure and richness to the cooked custard as it thickens.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that is cooked and then cooled.
Butter
Provides fat that makes the frosting creamy and spreadable.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the frosting and helps give it a smooth texture when beaten.
Chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and color to the frosting.

The step that matters

Cool the custard before adding it to the butter. Adding warm custard to butter can melt the butter and cause the frosting to become greasy or runny. Cooling the custard keeps the butter emulsified and the frosting thick enough to spread.

“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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