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
Combine the chocolate, sugar, and boiling water in a saucepan.
Bring to a boil and let it boil for 15 minutes.
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.
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Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chocolate
- Provides the rich chocolate flavour and the body of the frosting.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the frosting and, once dissolved and boiled, helps it set thick and glossy.
- Boiling water
- Dissolves the sugar and melts the chocolate into a smooth, pourable mixture.
The step that matters
Boiling for 15 minutes. Boiling drives off water and concentrates the sugar, so the frosting thickens as it cools. Boiling too briefly leaves it thin, while boiling too long can make it stiff and grainy.
“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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