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Dessert

Chocolate Filling and Frosting

A chocolate filling and frosting made with flour, sugar, egg, scalded milk, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and melted chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla 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 Filling and Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Mix ½ cup flour with ⅓ cup sugar in a bowl. Add 1 egg and beat thoroughly.

  2. Stir in 1 cup of scalded milk and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  3. Set aside to cool.

Make the frosting

  1. In another bowl, beat 1 cup of butter with 1 cup of powdered sugar.

  2. Add the cooled mixture, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, and 1½ squares of melted chocolate.

  3. Spread the frosting when cool.

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. Milk + vanillatop 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. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla 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

Flour
Thickens the cooked milk mixture so it sets into a firm, spreadable filling.
Egg
Adds richness and helps bind the cooked mixture into a smooth custard-like texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the flour and egg thicken into the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and creaminess, giving the frosting its smooth, rich body.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the frosting and helps it hold a smooth, spreadable consistency.
Chocolate
Gives the frosting its chocolate flavour and deepens its colour.

The step that matters

Cool the cooked mixture before adding it to the butter. If the cooked mixture is still warm, it can melt the butter and make the frosting greasy and loose instead of light and spreadable.

“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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