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Dessert

Chocolate Frosting

A chocolate frosting made by melting butter, sugar, milk, and chocolate, then boiling, cooling, and beating until creamy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

Make the frosting

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the sugar, milk, and chocolate to the melted butter.

  3. Boil for 13 minutes, or until it forms a soft ball when tested in cold water.

  4. Cool the mixture.

  5. Beat until creamy.

Finish and serve

  1. Add vanilla and pour over the cake.

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. Vanilla + milktop 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Vanilla and sugar 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

Sugar
Sweetens the frosting and, when boiled, helps it set to a smooth, thick texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the frosting a smooth mouthfeel.
Milk
Provides liquid that dissolves the sugar and lets the mixture cook to a soft ball.
Chocolate
Gives the frosting its chocolate flavour and dark colour.

The step that matters

Boiling to a soft ball. Boiling sugar syrup to the right temperature controls how firm the frosting becomes once cooled. Too short a boil leaves it runny, while too long makes it hard and grainy. The cold-water test checks the stage.

“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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