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Dessert

Chocolate Frosting

A chocolate frosting made by boiling chocolate, sugar, milk, butter, and salt, then adding vanilla.

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the frosting

  1. Combine grated chocolate, sugar, sweet milk, butter, and salt in a saucepan.

  2. Boil for 20 minutes, stirring constantly.

  3. Remove from heat and pour into a dish.

Finish and spread

  1. When the mixture is near cool, add vanilla.

  2. If too thick, thin with milk.

  3. Spread on 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. Milk + buttertop 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. Chocolate + sugartop 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

Grated sweet chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and body that gives the frosting its color and richness.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the frosting and, when boiled, helps it set to a smooth, spreadable texture.
Sweet milk
Dissolves the sugar and chocolate into a liquid base that can be thinned if needed.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, glossier texture and a richer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Boil for 20 minutes, stirring constantly. Boiling dissolves the sugar and cooks the mixture to the right concentration for spreading. Constant stirring prevents scorching on the bottom of the pan, which would give a burnt taste and gritty texture.

“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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