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Dessert

Chocolate Icing

A chocolate icing made by melting chocolate with water, then mixing with beaten egg white and 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

Make the chocolate

  1. Finely scrape the chocolate and place it in a porcelain cup with 2 teaspoons of cold water.

  2. Set the cup in a pan of simmering water and stir until smooth, about 2-3 minutes.

Make the icing and finish

  1. Remove the cup from the water and beat the egg white and sugar together for 2-3 minutes.

  2. Stir in the melted chocolate and mix well.

  3. Spread the icing on the cake using a broad knife.

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

Chocolate
Provides the flavour and, once melted, the colour and body of the icing.
Egg white
Beaten with the sugar, it adds lightness and helps the icing set with a smooth texture.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into the beaten egg white, adding sweetness and body to the icing.

The step that matters

Melting the chocolate over simmering water. Chocolate scorches or seizes into a grainy lump if overheated, so gentle indirect heat and stirring until smooth keep it fluid and glossy for spreading.

“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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