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Dessert

Chocolate Frosting

A chocolate frosting made by cooking sugar, cream, and chocolate, then cooling and beating into a thick cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

Make the frosting

  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar, salt, cream (or milk and butter), and cinnamon bark if using.

  2. Cook without stirring until the mixture can form a fine thread when tested.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool.

Finish and beat

  1. Once cool, beat the mixture until it becomes a thick cream.

  2. If you did not use cinnamon, add vanilla extract for flavor.

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. Cinnamon + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Granulated sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it cooks, forms the syrup that sets into a creamy frosting.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the frosting a rich, smooth texture.
Chocolate
Gives the frosting its chocolate flavor and color.

The step that matters

Cook without stirring until a fine thread forms. Stirring during cooking can trigger sugar crystallization, leading to a grainy frosting. Cooking to the thread stage concentrates the sugar so it sets smooth when beaten after cooling.

“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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