Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓
Chocolate Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the chocolate icing
Boil thick chocolate as if for drinking.
Add 1 tablespoon of chocolate to every ¼ pound of icing sugar with a few drops of water.
Cook 1 ounce of grated chocolate in 1½ tablespoons of water until smooth.
Stir in ¼ pound of icing sugar and a few drops of lemon juice; mix well without returning to the heat.
Ice and dry the cakes
Pour the icing over warm cakes and smooth with a palette knife dipped in cold water.
Allow cakes to dry on a sieve or pastry rack.
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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,020 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Lemon + vanillatop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,961 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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
- Icing sugar
- Provides sweetness and body, and sets to a smooth, firm coating as it cools.
- Chocolate
- Supplies the main flavour and dark colour of the icing and thickens it when melted.
- Lemon juice
- Adds a little acidity that brightens the sweetness of the sugar and chocolate.
The step that matters
Mix the sugar in off the heat. Stirring icing sugar into chocolate that is still hot can melt the sugar into a thin, runny syrup. Mixing off the heat lets the icing thicken and set smoothly on the cake.
“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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