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Dessert

Chocolate Frosting

A butter-based chocolate frosting made with unsweetened chocolate, powdered sugar, vanilla, salt, and hot milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cream the butter in a bowl.

  2. Gradually add part of the powdered sugar, blending after each addition.

  3. Mix in the vanilla, salt, and melted chocolate until well combined.

  4. Add the remaining sugar alternately with the hot milk until the frosting reaches the right consistency to spread.

  5. Beat after each addition until smooth.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Butter + milktop 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. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 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

Butter
Creamed with the sugar to give the frosting a smooth, rich body.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves into the fat and provides sweetness and bulk.
Unsweetened chocolate
Supplies the chocolate flavor and deep color.
Hot milk
Loosens the frosting to a spreadable consistency.

The step that matters

Adding the sugar and hot milk alternately. Adding liquid in small alternating portions and beating after each addition keeps the frosting smooth. Adding too much liquid at once can thin it and make it grainy or runny, so the consistency must be checked as you go.

“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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