Why it works: Sugar and chocolate 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
Dissolve ½ cup of pulverized sugar in a little hot water.
Add 2 tablespoons of grated chocolate, stirring slowly until well dissolved.
Use immediately.
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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Sugar + chocolatetop 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
- Pulverized sugar
- Provides sweetness and body, and helps the icing set smooth and glossy.
- Grated chocolate
- Supplies chocolate flavour and colour, and thickens the icing as it dissolves.
The step that matters
Stirring the chocolate in slowly. Grated chocolate can seize or stay gritty if added too fast or left to clump. Stirring slowly lets the chocolate melt evenly into the warm liquid, giving a smooth icing.
“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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