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Dessert

Chocolate Frosting

A chocolate frosting made by melting chocolate with sugar and boiling water, then adding beaten egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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

  1. Combine the grated chocolate, sugar, and boiling water in a double boiler.

  2. Stir the mixture for five minutes.

  3. Beat the egg until very light and stir it into the chocolate mixture.

  4. Allow the mixture to remain on the heat for ten minutes.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Chocolate + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

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

What each ingredient does

Grated chocolate
Provides the main flavor and, as it cools, the firm body that sets the frosting.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves into the warm chocolate for a smooth texture.
Egg
Enriches the frosting and thickens it as its proteins gently set with heat.

The step that matters

Stirring the beaten egg into the chocolate mixture. The egg must be combined smoothly into the warm chocolate. Egg proteins set with heat, so keeping the heat gentle and stirring constantly prevents the egg from curdling into lumps.

“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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