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Chocolate Transparent Icing

A chocolate icing made by melting chocolate with water, diluting with syrup, and mixing with boiled sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Chocolate Transparent Icing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Melt the chocolate with water in a pan over low heat, stirring constantly until soft.

  2. Dilute the melted chocolate with syrup and mix until perfectly smooth.

  3. Add the chocolate mixture to the boiled sugar and combine well.

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. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Chocolate + syruptop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,239 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fine chocolate
Provides the main flavour and the dark colour of the icing.
Syrup
Thins the melted chocolate and adds sweetness and a smooth, glossy texture.
Boiled sugar
Forms the sugar base that gives the icing body and a set, glossy finish.

The step that matters

Melting the chocolate over low heat. Chocolate can seize or turn grainy if it overheats, so melting it gently while stirring keeps it smooth and fluid, which is needed for the icing to blend evenly.

“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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