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Dessert

Chocolate Frosting

A frosting made from grated chocolate, powdered sugar, and beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the egg whites lightly; they should not become white.

  2. Stir in the grated chocolate.

  3. Gradually add the powdered sugar while beating to mix well.

  4. Continue beating until the mixture is stiff and smooth.

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. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Chocolate + eggtop 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 whites
Whipped into a foam that gives the frosting its airy structure and body.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the frosting and dissolves into the foam, helping it set stiff.
Grated chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and cocoa fat, giving richness to the frosting.

The step that matters

Adding the powdered sugar gradually. Adding sugar slowly while beating lets it dissolve evenly into the egg white foam. Dumping it in at once can deflate the foam and leave the frosting grainy and loose.

“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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